Opinion Piece on Immigration

Photo by Kevin Scott

If society is broken, people like me who can afford it should contribute more to repairing our public services.

First featured by the Belfast Telegraph on Thursday 5th September 2024.

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The recent racist violence simultaneously revealed how deeply fractured our society is and how powerless we are to change it.

A significant part of the problem is that a large swathe of the country has simply no idea what it is like to live in a disadvantaged working-class community.

The entirely appropriate condemnation of overt racism spread, like a blanket, to cover entire communities. The side-by-side display of Union Jack and tricolour graphically illustrated how the fault lines have shifted.

The immigration crisis has magnified the gap between social classes.

To most of the middle-class there is no immigration crisis. “Northern Ireland has an immigration crisis? Seriously?” I was asked more than once. That is because most educated professionals live in avenues where almost all residents are white and of indigenous origin. They encounter ethnic minority newcomers providing (excellent) care for their elderly relatives, and may have one or two colleagues who were born abroad.

Immigration has been almost entirely beneficial, supplying employees for low paid jobs that need doing and enriching the cultural ambience of the country. It is hard to see a downside.

For those living in deprived working-class neighbourhoods the opposite is true. Possibly as many as one in five of the houses in the street may be occupied by newcomers; the old, settled community has been disrupted; communication with neighbours who don’t speak English is difficult, and some of the houses are of multiple single male occupancy.

While social housing is in short supply, rents in the private sector have risen. School classes have significant numbers of children for whom English is not their first language. The job market has changed, although admirably many newcomers have an outstanding work ethic. From this vantage point, it is hard to see an upside.

A major underlying factor is the parlous state of our public services.

It is little wonder we have a mental health crisis given the pressures many families face. We have a shortfall of 44,000 social housing units following years of government under-investment. The plans are to build another 400 this year. We have the laxest regulation of the private rental sector on these islands, with numerous landlords failing to make homes even habitable.

We are all aware of the crisis in the NHS, however those from disadvantaged communities simply cannot ‘go private’ to have their cataract operation or their knee replacement. Schools serving these communities have far fewer options when it comes to raising extra funds, parents’ pockets are simply not as deep.

When life is desperately grim, when people are struggling to survive from day to day and feel they have no agency to change things, human nature looks for someone to blame, and foreigners are an obvious scapegoat. There is no shortage of far-right agitators ready to point the finger. Small incidents can trigger outburst of anger and aggression. This is not to in any way justify or condone racism or racist hate crimes. It is to point out that judging people whose lived experience is entirely different to mine is perverse.

To redress this will be extremely difficult, but outstanding work has been done in many communities over the past decade and large numbers of newcomers have been more or less successfully integrated into many neighbourhoods. Supporting communities with community relations workers, ESOL language classes, advice centres, mediation services and restorative justice projects have all made an impact.

Politicians cannot change hearts and minds, but they could take actions which can make change possible, such as prioritising a realistic social building programme, greater support to schools with high numbers of pupils on free school meals, and a fully funded, myth-busting anti-racism education programme.

But to take these actions and to address our crumbling public services will require a larger public purse: where can this money come from?

I am one of those, a middle-class professional incensed by the racist intimidation, who should be contributing more to the public finances.

As Keir Starmer said recently, those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden.

Those of us who are comfortably well off (and there are many in Northern Ireland) should be contributing more to improve our public services.

Improving the lot of those living in poverty benefits everyone and reduces the tendency to look for scapegoats.

Oh, and taking the time to meet and listen to people who may only live a mile from us, but whose life experience is utterly different, could also change our lives for the better.