Politicians are playing the race card over immigration, even when they say they are not, writes Ronaldo Munck
Conservative US political commentator Samuel P. Huntington refers to "The Hispanic Challenge" and how "in this new era, the single most immediate and most serious challenge to America's traditional identity comes from the immense and continuing immigration from Latin America, especially from Mexico" (Foreign Policy, 2004). Irish Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte declares that: "There are 40 million or so Poles after all, so it is an issue we have to look at."
So are we facing "The Polish Challenge" in Ireland? Does Pat Rabbitte follow Pat Buchanan, for whom: "We were one nation, one people. We worshipped the same God, spoke the same English language" until along came the Immigration Act of 1965 and "that America has now gone forever" (America in 2050: Another Country)?
If the Poles are to be seen as Ireland's Mexicans, what are the basic facts about Polish emigration to Ireland?
Poland's migration patterns post-accession to the EU in 2004 did not change unduly, except that the new stream was younger and better educated than previously, a bit like Irish migration to the EU in the 1980s.
Because it was now legal, there was an increase in the flow of migrants to Ireland, from 0 per cent in 2003 to 6 per cent in 2005 of the 100,000 or so Polish people who go abroad each year for variable periods of time. So the Polish labour flow into Ireland is a very small proportion of the total, and it is mainly short term.
In terms of the receiving country (Ireland) the current migratory flows are not as large as the popular imagination seems to think. The recent AIB study of "non-national workers in the Irish economy", based on official census data, is quite clear that the number of migrant workers in employment here at the end of 2005 - 159,300, representing 8 per cent of the total - "is not particularly large by international standards", being close to the average for the pre-enlargement EU 15 countries.
There may well be an "optical illusion" at work here, insofar as that 8 per cent is up from 6 per cent a year ago and 3 per cent in 1998, so that the increasing flow of migrants gives the impression that numbers are greater than they are.
Nor in fact are migrant workers "clustered" in particular sectors as people seem to think; according to the AIB study, "there is a relatively wide and even distribution of non-national workers in Ireland in both absolute and percentage terms".
As to the impact of these migrants on local workers' job prospects, we do not know precisely, insofar as immigration research in Ireland is in its infancy. But international research finds that an increase in overseas workers by 10 per cent might reduce native employment rates by one half of 1 per cent, and even that effect would be temporary.
Pat Rabbitte also says that: "Displacement is going on in the meat factories and it is going on in the hospitality industry, and it is going on in the building industry". To be clear on our terminology, the Oxford English Dictionary defines the verb "to displace" as "take the place of; oust", and the displaced person as "a person who is forced to leave his or her home because of war, persecution, etc; a refugee".
So, firstly I would be wary of anyone slyly implying that the Irish are refugees in their own land. On the facts of Irish workers being replaced by overseas workers, Siptu is correct to focus on the building industry, long notorious for its exploitative labour practices from the days of "the lump" onwards.
In terms of the broader picture, we are currently conducting research precisely in meat factories and in the hospitality industry, as part of DCU's intercultural workplace project, and while we found plenty of overseas workers there, they have not "displaced" anyone but have simply taken up posts that the employers are anxious to fill since the local workers went off to better-paid employment elsewhere.
They also work under exactly the same conditions as Irish workers. So why, on the basis of anecdotal evidence and not proper research, make this an emotive issue, conjure up images of job-stealing foreigners and, yes, play the race card?
All politicians will, of course, deny that they are playing the race card precisely when they are. The recent Irish Times poll, which showed that 78 per cent of people thought the number of overseas workers was either enough or too many, was also interpreted as simply "economic concerns" and not as racism.
While 78 per cent of the Irish population are not racist and there are genuine concerns about the impact of migration, we need to be aware that contemporary racism is no longer couched in terms of racial prejudice but, rather, as a professed cultural identity seen to be under threat from alien cultures.
This exclusionary new racism articulates a protectionist "Irish jobs for Irish people" sentiment that plays on the fears of a rapidly changing society.
Politicians and journalists, as much as public intellectuals, have a responsibility rationally to explain immigration and not foster irrational fears and prejudices.
The "Polish Challenge" that Pat Rabbitte has conjured up in response to dubious focus group findings that it is a vote winner, should perhaps be reconstructed as "The Irish Challenge", in terms of what sort of country we wish it to be. As a Siptu member I endorsed the campaign to reverse the outsourcing of labour by Irish Ferries and I am delighted to see the union waging a concerted campaign to recruit and organise migrant workers.
Our research project on trafficking for forced labour, in conjunction with the Migrant Rights Centre, found that trafficking occurs mainly where labour regulation and union organisation are at their weakest. As James Connolly might have put it "The cause of migrants is the cause of labour" or at least it should be.
The flow of workers across frontiers - an inevitable corollary of globalisation - should never be used to weaken the social protection of vulnerable workers. But nor should it be used by Labour (or any other) politicians to beat the nativist drum and to promote racist reactions not worthy of a prosperous, diverse and socially integrated country.
• Prof Ronaldo Munck is theme leader for internationalisation, interculturalism and social development at Dublin City University