Room To Roma

Reactions to the recent incursion into this jurisdiction by over 100 members of the Rostas Roma clan have been fascinating. For what seems like the first time we had members of various support groups and voluntary organisations emphasising that the law was the law. Further, they argued that it was better to deal with the causes of migration, that is, poverty in eastern and south-eastern European countries, rather than create the welfare conditions and responses that would draw people from there to here.

It might be useful to ponder what would have happened had it been a group of Nigerians or Somalis instead of Roma. I may be wrong, but I think there would have been much more support. If I’m right, this raises many questions.
Of course, the Roma do not endear themselves to host societies. Nomads rarely do. That is not their fault, but neither can one point the finger too righteously at settled people. Fairly or unfairly, Roma are frequently accompanied by accusations of theft and scamming. Their frequently intrusive and sometimes aggressive style of begging also alienates, especially in a culture where people are as careful about their personal space as the Irish.
But whatever about that, few rushed to their support and most people were relieved and satisfied with the way the occupation of the Ballymun roundabout ended, peacefully and without injury or sickness.
So, were they better off here than there? They said they were. Though their shelter was minimal and squalid, they were fed and watered daily, could come and go to the centre of Dublin to beg and seemed convinced that, somehow, they might be housed and able to start a new life here.
But others denied their stories of filth and deprivation in Romania and told of houses and horses. Fascinatingly, last Friday we heard that over 100 Roma had sought sanctuary in Romania, fleeing from persecution in Serbia. Clearly, everything is relative.
From what we read, it seems that members of the Rostas clan weren’t very well informed about Ireland. True, they had heard it was rich. But they appear to have known nothing of its size nor its legal restrictions on work and welfare.
The incident has fed an unpleasant perception of some immigrants as freeloaders and welfare tourists, and in so doing has rather muddied the waters surrounding immigration and asylum-seeking, which is a pity for everyone.
Immigration is a fact of life now and immigrants have contributed hugely to the recent economic growth in this country. But immigrants are likely to be lower paid than natives, to be employed in work that doesn’t reflect their skill levels and qualifications, and to be regarded as more expendable too.
This may be why there has been a rise in the number of complaints made to the Equality Tribunal concerning racial discrimination in the workplace.
To be fair, the number of complaints is small. Furthermore, we are talking of raw numbers with, as is also the case with complaints to other monitoring bodies, no effort made to identify variables or the fact that as awareness rises so too do complaints. In a society ruled by PR rather than science, that’ll happen.
But see it as a watermark of change. The data emerging from the last census reveals the degree to which this is becoming a multi-cultural society, with all the risks and opportunities that entails.
The opportunities are well aired in the economic and social fields. But we have to be realistic. The Rostas affair aside, recent weeks have also brought a range of cases before the courts, involving trafficking in illegal immigrants, murders, rapes, stabbings, smuggling and extortion and all perpetrated by immigrants.
A multi-cultural society isn’t all happy, clappy, smiley, groovy rhythms. It isn’t all fantastic. There are problems amongst incomers just as there are problems with the rest of us. A lot of Irish were gangsters in America.
In a generation, Ireland could (still) be a great place to live. We don’t want it riven by riots like they had in France. We don’t want the disintegration they’ve seen in the Netherlands. We don’t want home-grown terror threats of the type they’ve had in the UK.
Only if we are realistic and honest about it do we have a chance of navigating the rapids we face in getting from where we are, where it’s all new and full of promise, to where we will be in 25 years, where all might – or might not – be so rosy.
It can be done and we can do it. But hiding from reality will destroy us. We have to keep our heads out of our asses. There will be hard cases, inevitably. The systems will be tested day by day, month by month. It is some trick to be hard-headed and compassionate at the same time, and consistent too. But that’s the way it’s going to have to be.
That, my friends, is life.