Sir, – I would like to thank the men and women who have come here to work as carers, drivers, nurses, doctors, teachers, labourers and who are filling a huge variety of jobs in the hospitality industry.
Every day I encounter young people in hotels and restaurants and wonder what we would do if they had gone elsewhere.
I ask them where they come from and am astounded at the wide variety of places, some great distances away.
So thank you for coming and thank you for staying. I hope we have made you feel welcome and will continue to do so. – Yours, etc,
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FIONA O’DONOVAN,
Belfast.
Sir, – Rosemary Kunene acknowledges that people fear the impact of asylum seekers and migrants on local services (Letters, December 28th). However, people also fear the threat to their indigenous culture and heritage.
The root of the problem lies in the UN’s convention relating to the status of refugees.
Designed in an era long before cheap travel and smartphones, its definition of an asylum seeker is so wide that potentially hundreds of millions of people are covered. They only have to set foot in Europe to have a good chance of remaining.
In 2012 the late Peter Sutherland stated that, “the European Union should be doing its best to undermine” the “sense of homogeneity and difference” that binds states in order to advance multiculturalism.
This process has clearly been under way for some time despite the fact that the political elites both here and in Europe have no democratic mandate for such a policy. – Yours, etc,
KARL MARTIN,
Bayside,
Dublin 13.
Sir, – Wise words from Rosemary Kunene. We would do well to heed her kind and thoughtful message. – Yours, etc,
L KAVANAGH,
Dublin 8.