Minister for Social Affairs Mary Hanafin today warned against wrongly accusing immigrants of taking jobs and scamming the social welfare system in the recession.
Ms Hanafin claimed the economic downturn could lead to racism as there were now more nasty comments being levelled at migrants than in the past.
The Minister was unveiling a study of some of the country’s most vulnerable communities, including Travellers, the homeless and migrants.
“We’ve all heard that they’re all taking our jobs, that they are all scamming the welfare - it is not true,” the Minister said. “But that’s what people are saying.”
Ms Hanafin said the vast majority of immigrants into Ireland were working and those claiming benefits were entitled to do so because they had been in employment.
“There is always a danger when you have jobs being lost in the country, that people see that if migrants are taking those jobs that they resent that,” Ms Hanafin said.
“That can lead to comments being made against people and can lead to racism. It has happened in other countries and it is something that we need to be very very careful of.”
Ms Hanafin said migrants were undoubtedly experiencing more difficulties, more discrimination and more nasty comments on the streets than in the past - “and it goes with an economic downturn,” she said.
Wildcat strikes have been held in the UK by oil refinery workers protesting against foreign labour and demanding "British jobs for British workers".
The study being launched today - Social Portrait of Communities- revealed immigration rose form 8,000 in 1996 to 70,000 by 2006, with the vast majority from Europe.
The non-nationals are younger and well educated, with around 30 per cent of adults with a third level degree compared with 17 per cent of Irish. Almost 67 per cent of non-nationals are at work compared with 56 per cent of the Irish, the study found.
Ms Hanafin also called for communities to rally together to get through the credit crunch and said people had become isolated in society. “If ever there was a need for communities to support each other, it is a time of difficulty,” she said.
“In recent years we don’t know who lives beside us. We don’t talk to the person on the Dart. Everybody is isolated from everybody else.”
She said people were too transfixed with gadgets such as Ipods to talk and listen to the people around them.
The study also found greater numbers with a higher level of education in cities than in the country, although rural areas have lower levels of deprivation and consistent poverty.
Life expectancy of male Travellers is 10 years less and for females 12 years less than the rest of the population, while just 14 per cent are at work compared with 65 per cent of the total population, the study found. It also revealed two-thirds of Travellers over the age of 15 have completed primary school only.
Almost a quarter of Dublin’s homeless in 2005 were children, and around 40 per cent of homeless people with children were without accommodation for almost three years.
Ms Hanafin said the profiles reiterated the need for a targeted and integrated approach to tackling the most vulnerable in society.
PA