The Irish Are Friendly, But....

A Report on Racism and International Students in Ireland
by Gerard W. Boucher

This publication is based on a series of interviews conducted with international students in three universities in the Republic of Ireland during the European Year Against Racism 1997. The report situates the students’ accounts in contexts both historical and contemporary, and offers a theoretical framework for understanding their experiences. It will be of interest not only to academic specialists and those who work with international students, but also to the general readerwho is concerned about racism in Ireland today.

The Outcomes of the Research
Comparison with the British and Dutch experiences revealed a European context, the recent Irish combination of economic increasing immigration and rise in racism were far from unique, but seemed to follow a similar pattern to events occurring forty years in other EU countries. The comparison also highlighted the absence date of a comprehensive Irish policy framework in relation to the of groups of national, ethnic and racial minorities in Ireland (including international students as temporary educational migrants) and yielded examples of effective policies and practices in place elsewhere which might provide useful models for consideration here.

The interview results showed clearly that, while there are links between prejudice and discrimination in Irish society and their expression in Irish universities, the universities are more tolerant of diversity than are other sectors of society. They showed also the usefulness of distinguishing between the different forms of discrimination in the Irish context, as they revealed a dominant pattern in which Irish racism was combined with either nationalist xenophobia or with ethnicism, and which was primarily directed against non-white people from the majority world.

One surprising result was that most of the international students liked Ireland precisely because it was perceived to be a largely homogenous society, which in their view showed more friendliness towards its minorities than did majority groups in their own more culturally diverse countries of origin. On the other hand, they recognised insularity as a negative outcome of this relative homogeneity, seeing it expressed at times through national, ethnic and racial discrimination against the non-Irish. Further, many of the non-white students detailed their personal experiences of the rise of racism in Ireland coinciding with the economic boom and the increase in refugees and asylum-seekers. To some extent, the international students’ experiences supported the view that contemporary Irish prejudice and discrimination is built on the structures of the traditional - friendly yet insular - Irish culture and society which emerged out of the struggle between British imperialism and Irish nationalism in Ireland. At the same time, the non-white students’ experiences of racism rising in tandem with increasing social and cultural diversity suggested that these traditional structures are now being rebuilt along more racist, post-war European lines.

This study should be of interest to the general reader who desires a more tolerant, inclusive Ireland, and who is appalled by the recent expressions of racism in the country. It should also interest the reader who seeks a better understanding of the roots of Irish prejudice and discrimination, both from a purely Irish perspective and in a broader European context. At the specialist level, the report should be of particular relevance to those who work in education, especially at third level, to those who work with Ireland’s new migrants and to academics and researchers who study forms of discrimination in Ireland.

The report is divided into seven chapters, moving in sequence from historical, comparative and theoretical issues to the details of the research and the interview results. In this way, Chapters 2 to 4 develop an argument which can be used to analyse the interviews in Chapter 6, ideally providing the reader with a more comprehensive understanding of the international students’ experience and the nature of prejudice and discrimination in contemporary Ireland. But that is for the reader to decide.