Context has been the missing ingredient in many of the debates over asylum-seekers in recent weeks. Is Ireland taking more than its fair share of asylum-seekers? Is rural Ireland taking more than its fair share? And how does our treatment of the new arrivals compare to that in other European countries?
It seems incredible now, but when in 1992 the number of people seeking asylum in Europe peaked at almost 700,000, the total number of applications made in Ireland was just 39. Surely someone somewhere must have seen that this great wave of migration, largely caused by the fall of the Berlin Wall, would some day wash up in Ireland.
Last year, Ireland received 7,762 asylum applications. Ireland's 1998 total of 4,626 compares with an overall European figure of 352,000.
Anti-immigration groups would point out that the Irish figures are rising faster than elsewhere; pro-asylum-seeker lobbyists retort that we are starting from a tiny base, and have no historical "reservoir" of refugees of any size.
What is noticeable about the Irish figures is the disproportionate representation of some nationalities seeking asylum. Even by the end of 1998, Ireland was already receiving three times as many Nigerians and Romanians as Germany, traditionally Europe's main country of refuge.
But even these European figures are puny in a global context. Estimates of the number of refugees worldwide vary, depending on whether people who are internally displaced in their own country are included. However, one estimate is that their number has grown from 8 million to 15 million over the past decade.
Yet only 5 per cent of asylum-seekers try to seek sanctuary in Europe; poor countries with a fraction of the wealth of EU states put up the rest. Many Irish aid workers would have worked in refugee camps - on the Rwanda/Zaire border, for example - with greater populations than the entire number of asylum applications in Europe in a given year.
In assessing Ireland's asylum regime compared to the rest of Europe, it is important to remember this is not a static situation. From the start of the 1990s, the EU and its member-states have progressively tightened controls on the flow of asylum-seekers. Ireland is now following suit, albeit at some delay.
This process of "raising the bar" has had the desired effect: from 1987 to 1998, the acceptance rate for asylum applications in the EU fell from 50 per cent to 10 per cent. The latter figure is clearly one to which the Department of Justice here aspires, although it still leaves the question of what to do with rejected applicants. There is evidence that other EU states are more generous than Ireland about granting rejected applicants humanitarian leave to remain.
The Department is most keenly aware of trends in Britain, with which we share a common travel area. Hence its move to "direct provision" of food and accommodation for asylum-seekers, in place of payments, in tandem with a similar move by the UK.
But as a recent report commissioned by the Department clearly shows, Britain and Ireland are in a minority in the EU in moving towards direct provision. Mr Kevin Costello and Ms Suzanne Egan, authors of the Refugee Law Comparative Study, point out that the notion of direct provision is a novel one in Europe outside Britain and some regional states in Germany.
In seven EU states, welfare allowances for asylum-seekers are the same as those accorded to nationals, and in one state - Spain - they are higher. The amounts paid vary widely, from €222 (£175) a month in Spain, to €33 (£26) a day in Denmark and about €300 (£237) a month in France. In Ireland, asylum-seekers on supplementary welfare allowance receive £72 a week; those on direct provision receive accommodation and food, and pocket money of £15 a week.
On dispersion, the most controversial topic in so many rural communities in Ireland, the Department's report finds that the European norm is to house asylum-seekers, at least initially, in reception centres.
In some states, this accommodation is provided on need; in others, it is compulsory for a short time. In most cases, asylum-seekers do not have the choice of reception centre, but are sent where assigned.
Britain, for example, is currently engaged in a massive and controversial effort to move asylum-seekers out of the main cities and to place them throughout the country. Germany already has a well-organised system, in which asylum-seekers are distributed to regional reception centres with a minimum capacity of 300 people. Some are much larger.
In principle, asylum-seekers remain in these centres for a maximum of three months; in practice, they stay there much longer. Following this reception phase, asylum-seekers are then distributed between the local authorities. The only criterion determining the numbers sent to a particular parish or district is the size of the local population.
In many states, the local Red Cross and/or religious relief organisations are closely involved in providing services for asylum-seekers. Given Ireland's history, it seems surprising that organisations such as the Irish Red Cross, Trocaire or Christian Aid haven't involved themselves more directly in the issue.
Six EU states (including Italy, France, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands) do not allow asylum-seekers to work at any stage. In the rest of the EU, they are either allowed to work immediately (Greece); or they may apply for a work permit after a certain stage of the determination procedures has been reached (Belgium, Portugal); or after a certain time has elapsed (Finland, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the UK).
In Ireland, the right to work is available to only a small minority of asylum-seekers whose cases have been delayed considerably.
Germany and the Netherlands restrict the freedom of movement of asylum-seekers within their borders, but most other EU states, including Ireland, impose no such restriction.
Finally, 10 EU states offer health screening facilities to asylum-seekers on arrival; in five of these, this screening is mandatory.
Weblinks: www.irlgov.ie/justice - Department of Justice, press releases and information for asylum-seekers.
www.unhcr.ch - the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees - facts, figures and a global view of the asylum issue.
Paul Cullen's pamphlet on refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland has just been published by Cork University Press and is a available in bookshops.