Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

The plight of the new 'Irish' immigrant

Aiden Ball/Seven Oaks Magazine | 05.04.2004 08:23

As centuries-old demographic patterns are reversed, Ireland's North and South react sometimes violently to a new wave of immigrants. Will the weight of Irish history result in humane immigration policy, or will past violence continue?

Recently, Vancouver's Province newspaper ran a story that took me completely by surprise. The story told of the growing problem of racist attacks against immigrant families living in Northern Ireland. Apparently, the worst of these attacks occurred on December 21, 2003 in Loyalist South Belfast. That day, four men broke into the homes of two Chinese families and one African family, assaulting the occupants inside and forcing them to leave. Two of the women assaulted in the attacks were pregnant, and one of the husbands was smashed in the face with a brick while trying to defend his family.

Being of Irish descent, I was both ashamed and astonished to find out about these cowardly attacks. Ashamed that my people, who define themselves as an “immigrant nation,” could perpetrate such heinous crimes against immigrants. And amazed that there were actually immigrant families of Chinese and African origin who had chosen to make their homes in south Belfast. In fact, I was so amazed by this that I wondered whether I had read the story wrong. They must have been talking about unfortunate Catholic families living in a Loyalist area of Belfast.

Upon further investigation I found out that in fact the story was accurate, and more. It appears that Ireland, including the war torn, occupied North, is experiencing net immigration. This means that for the first time in documented history, more people are moving to Ireland than are moving away. Unbelievably, 800 years of Irish history has been reversed overnight. According to the Central Statistics Organisation of Ireland, the Irish Republic received 41,300 more people through immigration than it lost through migration in 2002. The North, over the same period, received about 100 more people than it lost. While these statistics may not seem impressive at first glance, they are in fact monumental. Roughly, five million people — north and South — populate Ireland today. According to Newsweek International, with the amount of immigration that the country is experiencing, old Ireland has acquired the highest immigration rate in the western world. Four times higher than even the United States, the so-called “melting pot” that had once attracted enormous numbers of Irish immigrants.


READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE AT
 http://sevenoaksmag.com/features/07_belfast.html

Aiden Ball/Seven Oaks Magazine
- e-mail: info@sevenoaksmag.com
- Homepage: http://www.sevenoaksmag.com

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech