Migration Debate For The Birds

And the award for THE most awful blog title ever goes to.....

The immigration issue is a thorny one, and the return of the question of work permits to the civil and political arena clouds the matter even further. I was quite struck by the coverage afforded by the Irish Times yesterday of TNS polls that highlighted a latent suspicion among respondents that immigration should be restricted, now that Irish society has accumulated a sufficient underclass to do the jobs that we now believe ourselves to be above. The island of saints and scholars and gombeens and greed.

This alarmist tendency that pervades coverage of the issue is not new. When the first wave of immigrants began to arrive in the mid- to late nineties, the papers accomodated a deluge of scaremongering and rhetoric to the effect that our traditional value system was being eroded by an army of lawless Nigerians and Romanians (oblivious to the explicit reality that this sorely-bereaved set of values had already been jostling with O'Leary in the grave for quite some time). Now, in the wake of the Irish Ferries dispute, the citizens of this fair country are considered ripe for a 'balanced' debate regarding immigration once again by the media. Hence The Time's front page, sensationalist analysis of a society quaking in its boots at the loss of jobs to non-nationals.

Pat Rabbite's advocacy of the reintroduction of work permits is extremely curious until one considers his love affair with fellow Mayo man Enda Kenny. In a reverse of the FF/PD relationship, Fine Gael seem to set the terms of their relationship with Labour rather than vice versa. The PD's are robustly opposing the scheme, while FF lumbers along as always, mumbling and guffawing and generally acting like yahoos at the Church door on a Saturday night.

The work permit system in its initial phase did not work because it bound the immigrant to his employer. Anyone who has worked for a bar owner/builder/restauranteur/list goes on and on will know where that path ends up; grotesque, indefensible exploitation. However, it is also clear that affairs as they stand are far from perfect - as Ross O'Carroll Kelly is wont to say, I'm talking Gama - and there can be little doubt that non-nationals willing to work for less will ever be offered more.

As for them taking Irish jobs, ask any Irish person their opinion on the free market and the invariable response will be posited a few miles away from the Charles River. Our entire welfare is based upon the rituals of nihilistic worship at the breast of nio-liberal economics, albeit backed up by a complicit state. Now that its tentacles are tickling our own chins, we're not so keen that an absence of regulation is the way forward. Furthermore, from a corporate perspective, the introduction of a fair-minded work permit scheme that would enhance rather than restrict the fortunes of immigrant workers would drive countless industries out of business in a matter of months. Stand up the hospitality industry.

But that won't happen. Because regardless of who is in power, or who writes the news, the over-riding agenda will be to preserve our own hides. This will inevitably mean either the preservation of the status quo which discriminates against new arrivals, or the reintroduction of work permits, which will keep the darkies in their place.

How far we've come.

As the above will suggest, I'm not an expert in this area and my opinions are quite jumbled, so comments are eagerly courted