David Quinn
With a General Election coming up, various issues will come to the front of the public mind and one of them is bound to be immigration. It has been arguably the main topic of debate in the country for the last year or so and therefore it is fitting that the bishops have produced a pastoral letter on the topic.
Currently, Ireland has one of the highest immigration rates in the whole of Europe and the rate of population increase is one of the highest in the Western world, right up with countries literally built through immigration like Canada. The rate is currently far higher than in Britain, where high immigration has been a topic of debate for years and we even have Britain’s Labour Government trying to bring the numbers down.
We also have one of the highest numbers of people entering the country seeking asylum, on a per capita basis, that is, compared with our population size. The miracle is that what is happening has not caused a debate before now. The amount of immigration we are seeing cannot but have a big effect on a country, both good and bad. It is as implausible to say the effects can only be good as to say the effects can only be bad.
Migration
Let’s look at this initially from the other end of the lens. Emigration, as distinct from immigration, can be vital and indispensable for the people affected. At various points in our history, enormous numbers of Irish have had to go overseas in search of a better life, and during the Famine, literally to avoid death, although many died of disease on the ships anyway, or after arriving in America or elsewhere.
But if emigration from a country becomes very high, that is extremely bad for that country overall, even if it is necessary, because the country begins to drain of its people, often its young, and that cannot be a good thing. We saw this in Ireland, with whole areas of the country, especially in the west, being depopulated.
This has been happening for quite some time in Eastern Europe. Many Poles, Lithuanians, Romanians etc have come to live here, but those countries have lost many of their people and are depopulating. They also have very low birth rates (as does Ireland now).
Therefore, emigration creates gains and losses. We were worried for a long time that we would be a ‘failed State’ with so many leaving.
Catholicism is a faith that crosses national and ethnic boundaries and sees the faith of Christians in Christ as the most important thing we share in common”
Net immigration on the other hand, that is, more people coming into your country than leaving, is a sign that your country is prospering. But is it still a perfectly legitimate question to ask whether we can cope with the numbers coming in over a given period, and whether one group is easier to integrate than another. For example, it is easier to integrate Filipinos than Afghans? A question like that should not be forbidden.
The bishops’ pastoral letter quite rightly draws attention to the universality of the Catholic faith, that is, Catholicism is a faith that crosses national and ethnic boundaries and sees the faith of Christians in Christ as the most important thing we share in common.
Division
As St Paul said: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
But Christians also see everyone as their neighbour, and not just other Christians. Therefore, we must reach out the hand of friendship to those of other faiths as well, something we have not always done very successfully, as the problem of sectarianism has shown and the existence down the centuries of Christian anti-Semitism.
But tribalism and division seem to be as much a part of the human condition as sin itself and therefore keep surfacing everywhere under nearly all conditions and in all cultures, which is why we must always be alert to it. Therefore, the bishops are correct to strongly emphasise the need to ‘welcome the stranger’.
We cannot pretend high immigration does not create strains of its own, and those strains can be seen precisely in areas like health and education and housing”
But in my opinion, the pastoral letter does not tackle the issue of immigration honestly enough or engage properly with the trade-offs involved.
Yes, we need a high level of immigration at present to keep the economy going, including vital sectors like health and education.
But on the other hand, we cannot pretend high immigration does not create strains of its own, and those strains can be seen precisely in areas like health and education and housing.
For example, it should be clear that as the population grows, there will be more demands on the health service and that demand might grow too fast to cope with. If we do not have enough doctors and nurses of our own, perhaps we are not training enough? In addition, is it a good thing that lots of Sudanese doctors are working in our hospitals because where does that leave poor, shattered Sudan?
Challenges
Some schools in the country actually need more pupils because our birth rate has dropped so much. On the other hand, some schools have so many pupils from non-English speaking backgrounds that integrating them all is a challenge and doing so can mean less class-time for learning the traditional subjects. It is easy for those unaffected by high immigration to lecture those who are.
Or what about housing? The pastoral letter said that there were strains on the housing system since before high immigration, although this is arguable because we have had high immigration, with brief interruptions, since the late 1990s.
But it is simply not plausible to say that very rapid population increase does not affect the availability of housing, and this lack of admission diminishes the overall credibility of the document. We can only build houses so fast.
There are very brief mentions of the common good in the document. It says: “It is important to approach immigration policies in a way that serves the common good, which includes both migrants and citizens”. But it does not develop this point properly.
There is too much wishful thinking in it, and too much avoiding of the real trade-offs involved in trying to balance different demands”
I have mentioned three examples of the need to balance competing demands in the areas of health, education and housing and the document does not tackle these competing demands with sufficient honesty. There is a determination to see only the upside of high immigration, but if you are someone in a long queue for social housing, you are entitled to get annoyed when you see demand for housing being constantly added to. What does the Church have to say to such people, people who are clearly suffering from social disadvantage themselves and who the Church is also supposed to be mindful of?
The pastoral letter is at its best when describing the sometimes heroic work parishes are doing integrating newcomers from different countries, newcomers who will hopefully help to revive the Church in Ireland. But overall, the document is a missed opportunity because there is too much wishful thinking in it, and too much avoiding of the real trade-offs involved in trying to balance different demands when a country has very high immigration levels.