The Irish Times/Ipsos B&A Research Snapshot Poll shows an interesting graph of voter sentiment. As the months pass, concerns come and go in the public consciousness.
For example, concerns about crime and Garda presence were not even in the top 10 in July 2023, but by early December they had jumped to 15%. By January, it had virtually disappeared again, returning to 3%.
Respondents were asked, “What recent statements or actions by the government make you think this country is moving in the right or wrong direction?”
Unsurprisingly, every poll since July 2023 has featured housing, but in the latest poll, 24% of respondents mentioned increased immigration. It is important to note that this poll does not measure attitudes toward immigrants themselves, but toward what the government says and does. Reactions to government policies have been overwhelmingly negative.
Recent research carried out by Dr Barry Cannon and Dr Shane Murphy with support from the Maynooth University Social Science Institute (MUSSI) found that communities protesting in support of or against asylum seeker housing. analyzed quotes from newspaper articles by people who The researchers found that while they acknowledged the existence of far-right agitators with catchy, emotional slogans, most people had more nuanced feelings. Both pro-accommodation and anti-accommodation demonstrators were concerned about a lack of consultation with host communities, a lack of support and resources, and the “unsuitability of the site.”
Rather than allaying anxiety, some pro-immigration responses are fueling it.Refusal can turn into fear when ignored or disrespected
Many Irish people are concerned about the government’s immigration policy. Reservation is one thing from fear, and another thing entirely from racism. Legitimate reservations about the overstretched capacity of public services are easily captured by bad actors who seek to inflame people into fear and manipulate them into racism.
However, some pro-immigration responses are actually fueling anxiety rather than quelling it. When reservations are ignored or downplayed, anxiety can turn into fear. You don’t want to create a false equivalency between people who set fire to hotels and people who comment publicly for a living, but condemning all reservations as proto-fascism is a completely unhelpful way to argue will be cut off.
In fact, those who label all reservations as far-right dog whistles are accomplishing further division. There’s no better way to mislead people than to falsely accuse them of already being there.
Dr. Kevin Hargaden, who works at the Jesuit Center for Faith and Justice, said that in a 2019 study using 2016 census data at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Gardiner Street in Dublin, 45 percent of the congregation It is pointed out that it was found that the answer was not Ireland. . If a parishioner who has lived there all her life says she feels like she doesn’t know anyone in her community anymore, is that racism, or is it simply a reflection of her experience? Is not it?
Mr Hargaden has heard from politicians in the region that some asylum seekers held in Dublin’s north inner city are keenly aware of the neglect and poverty plaguing the area. said that it was done. He recognizes the journalists who had to flee dictatorships, who found themselves at a disadvantage and became a burden to already impoverished communities. Concerned. He places the fundamental problem not in the origins of racism or fascism, but in the 15 years of underfunding since the global economic collapse, which has left our social fabric so thin that it frays. Ta.
Politicians are not the monsters they are sometimes portrayed as. They too are always on edge, anxiously watching snapshot polls and the next election.
Coming from a rural area, I have seen communities stripped of everything that keeps villages and small towns afloat, such as post offices and medical services. For example, concerns were expressed over the weekend that some areas of south Kerry could be left without a GP at all. And who do we turn to to fill that gap? Doctors outside the EU.
My intuition is that most people are basically decent. It doesn’t take much emotional processing to understand that if Russian tanks entered the Kara River, people would pack up their families and flee to seek shelter elsewhere. Politicians are not the monsters they are sometimes portrayed as. They, too, are always on edge, anxiously watching snapshot polls and the next election on which their livelihoods depend.
Perhaps it is time, or even lack of time to think, that prevents politicians from offering thoughtful visions of a good and conducive society. Most of us want a republic where newcomers are welcome as long as they are committed to the common good and willing to integrate. We won’t get there by excessive individualism or by leaving essential services like housing to the unfavorable forces of the market. Nor can we get there by demonizing those who don’t fully conform to a narrow ideological spectrum. It’s just a kind of fear of others.
Ireland is not full. It doesn’t have to be scary either.