Non-white students experience racism, report says

Nine out of 10 non-white students attending universities here have experienced some form of racism, most of it outside the campus, according to a new report. Verbal abuse and unwanted staring were the most frequent examples of racist behaviour, but more serious incidents were also recorded, such as offensive graffiti, discrimination in access to accommodation and assaults.

A significant number of instances of institutional racism, most of it involving immigration checks or the Aliens Registration Office, were also recorded.

Launching the report, the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, said it was a matter of deep regret that international students should feel they had experienced racism here. Commissioned by the Irish Council for International Students, it says Ireland now has a brief opportunity to put in place policies which will prevent the rise of the more entrenched forms of racism found in many other European countries.

Almost three-quarters of the students and 89 per cent of those who were non-white had experienced some form of discrimination. The most common types of institutional racism raised related to differential treatment for nonwhites at immigration controls and the refusals of visas for people from outside the EU.

Most of the 48 students interviewed still regarded Ireland as a "friendly" place in which to study. Many liked Ireland because it was a homogeneous society which showed more friendliness to minorities than did the majority groups in their own more culturally diverse societies.

The report, "The Irish are Friendly, But . . . ", suggests the role of alcohol in socialising in Ireland may be acting as a barrier to the integration of Muslim students. It also notes a trend towards "self-segregation" among some national groups of Muslims, due to peer or official pressures.

Its author, Mr Gerard Boucher, suggests that the recent Irish experience of economic boom, increasing immigration and a rise in racism follows a similar pattern to events in the Europe of 40 years ago. Traditional Ireland, friendly but insular, is being rebuilt along more "racist, post-war European lines", he says.

In all, the students interviewed recorded 128 instances of discrimination, of which fewer than 20 per cent occurred in the university setting. Generalised abuse and unwelcome staring, most of it in everyday situations, accounted for over 40 per cent of the incidents reported. The representative sample group included 15 African students, 18 Asians and only four Europeans.

The two examples of physical assault involved a Muslim woman's veil being touched by children and eggs being thrown at a group of Muslim women on the street. Mr Boucher describes this as "a clear example of racism mixing with nationalist xenophobia at the official level".

Many students linked the rise in racism in Ireland to the arrival of increased numbers of asylum-seekers. As one student noted, many Irish people assumed all black people were asylum-seekers.