Over 50 per cent of the economic migrants living in rural Ireland intend to remain in the State despite the downturn and more work needs to be done to integrate them into their local communities, according to a report published yesterday.
The report, entitled
Reaching Out: Supporting the Integration of Non-Irish Nationals in Rural Ireland, was launched by Irish Rural Link (IRL), the national organisation campaigning for sustainable rural communities.
It found that the Republic had a "highly dispersed settlement pattern" when compared to other EU countries and said non-nationals were being isolated "due to a mutual lack of understanding".
The report highlighted the risk of exploitation in connection with pay, accommodation and access to services and said the absence of public transport and support services in rural areas "further increases the risk of isolation".
Reaching Outwas compiled by community researcher Aine Egan who said media coverage of immigration tended to create the impression that non-nationals "just live in the urban centres, the census figures show this not to be the case".
She also said there was an assumption that "a lot of the newcomers are part of a transient society and they will leave and I think that needs to be challenged," Ms Egan said. "Diversity is here to stay."
She said that in an economic downturn "the race card can often be played and we need to be aware that when people feel insecure about their own employment they often look for scapegoats and migrants who themselves might be in insecure jobs are doubly at risk".
The Irish-Rural Link CEO, Seamus Boland accepted that the downturn would make things more difficult but said: "We should be very careful not to take it out on people who we regard as foreign. The reality is that unemployment is there for all of us. For many of the non-Irish nationals living in rural areas, the thought of going back to Dublin or their home country would be like starting at the beginning."
