We need to set standards for the treatment of immigrants now so that we will not see - in 10 or 15 years' time - scenes like those unfolding in Paris, according to Minister for Justice Michael McDowell.
He was speaking at the launch of Anti-Racist Workplace Week, sponsored by his department, the Equality Authority, Ibec and Ictu, as well as the IFA and other employer and farming organisations.
"We have to create a cohesive and happy society," he said. "We must exclude the possibility that immigrants will feel excluded. Countries are more than places where people live. They are also societies.
"We are lucky in one sense, in that we are coming to this situation later than others, and can learn from their experiences."
Stressing that the Government has constantly emphasised the role of immigrants in the recent success of the Irish economy, he said: "We have a responsibility to ensure that workplace policy and practices reflect and reasonably accommodate the diverse backgrounds of workers in the State: be they Irish citizens from ethnic minorities, members of the Travelling community or immigrant workers."
Goretti Mudzongo, an immigrant worker, said she had experienced a lot of frustration and difficulty in obtaining work. Few employers were prepared to apply for a work permit for her, and when one eventually did, it took seven months to come through.
She said there were too few acknowledgments of the role immigrants had played in the growth of the Irish economy.
"What would happen to the Irish construction industry, to the Irish catering industry, to the health system, if all the immigrants dropped dead or left tomorrow?" she asked.
The chief executive of the Equality Authority, Niall Crowley, pointed out that about 40 per cent of those who claimed discrimination at work cited it on race grounds.
He stressed that policies were needed which recognised and acknowledged differences in culture, educational and linguistic background, and the fact that immigrants might not be fully aware of their rights.