Ireland's tradition of welcoming migrants under strain in election

By Conor Humphries

In the small Irish market town of Ballaghaderreen, a long-standing welcome to immigrants is fraying badly ahead of a general election this week, the first to see the country's main political parties competing to be toughest on migrants.

A country that has long prided itself on being welcoming to migrants, Ireland has been shaken in the past two years by anti-immigrant riots in Dublin and grass-roots protests against refugee accommodation around the country.

An issue that was important for just 1% of voters when the Ukraine war started in early 2022 peaked at 41% in May in the wake of the arrival of over 100,000 Ukrainian refugees - the largest number per capita in Western Europe - and a surge in asylum seekers, one poll showed. Only the issues of housing and the cost of living were higher.

"The issue of immigration... came almost out of nowhere. It wasn't an issue three, four, five years ago," said Claire Kerrane, integration spokesperson for the opposition Sinn Fein party and a lawmaker for the area around Ballaghaderreen in western Ireland. "Everyone was caught on the back foot a little bit."

Kerrane was speaking in her office on the main street of Ballaghaderreen, a town of 2,400 that had a foreign-born population of 39% in the 2022 census, a figure that has likely grown since.

Earlier this month, after reports of an alleged assault involving a non-national, hundreds of people marched through the town holding candles and demanding more police resources.

Police issued a rare "misinformation notice" after a flood of posts about the incident online. Locals angrily rebuffed far-right activists from outside the town who tried to join the march.

"There definitely is a far-right element there," said Kerrane. "And it's more there than it ever was."

MANIFESTO PROMISES

Analysts have pointed to a relatively soft stance on immigration as a factor in a slide in support for Sinn Fein, a party which a year ago was the clear favourite to lead the next government.

The left-wing party's manifesto says migrants are needed but that deportation needs to be more strictly enforced and refugees should not be sent to deprived areas. It opposes the renewal of a special status for Ukrainian refugees, which comes up in 2026.

The centre-right coalition government of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have already curbed benefits for migrants and both parties are promising additional measures.

Almost uniquely in Europe, Ireland has no far-right presence in parliament and while there are more anti-migrant candidates running in the Nov. 29 election, few if any are expected to get elected.

But some local politicians are echoing their talking points.

"People have lost control of their own town. And I think they're frustrated. And some of them are hopeless," said independent candidate Eugene Murphy. "Somebody needs to grasp the situation and deal with it urgently."

HISTORY OF INTEGRATION

Residents recount the town's long history of welcoming migrants, from the halal meat factory in the 1980s that brought in Pakistani butchers to the support for Syrian refugees in 2017 that won the town a national "Community of the Year" award.

Activists say it is the waves of immigration since - Eastern Europeans arriving from Britain after Brexit, Ukrainian refugees from the war, and a recent surge in asylum seekers - that has upset some.

This has fuelled a campaign from locals for more services for the additional population, from doctors to school places to police.

"We were fobbed off in every possible way," said local councillor Michéal Frain, who has helped lead the campaign but has been vocal in rejecting the far-right's involvement.

While services have recently started to improve, the damage to community relations has been done. "The mistakes that were made here are now being made in other parts of the country."

Of about a dozen locals questioned on the main street during a busy Monday afternoon, most said they were broadly sympathetic with migrants but that service provision was a major problem.

"I know people coming from the Ukraine and from Syria, they've come from bad places and you would like to help them but there's only a limit to what you can do," said Michael Mulligan, who runs a hardware shop on the main square.

Some migrants shopping said they still found the town welcoming, but others said they had become more nervous of late.

"If somebody is saying there is no racism, that is a big lie," said Sajjad Hussain, a community activist from Pakistan who has been in Ballaghaderreen for over 20 years and runs Saj's Barber Shop on the main street. "I've never seen it that bad in my life."

While only a small fraction of residents are vocally anti-immigrant, Hussain says he senses a dangerous change of mood.

"I am not only worried about the town, I am worried about the country," he said.