Government policy viewed refugees and asylum-seekers as people who would take local jobs and cause economic upheaval, but the reverse was true, the former minister for equality and law reform, Mr Mervyn Taylor, has said.
Mr Taylor was speaking at a round-table discussion on racism in Dublin yesterday as the Irish representative of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.
He said the popular view of refugees and asylum-seekers in the Republic, which reflected Government policy here and in other European states, was that "these people are a problem, they're a difficulty, they are going to take our jobs, they are going to cause economic upheaval by being here."
Mr Taylor said history showed that "when asylum-seekers and refugees come to a country they make a contribution to that country out of all proportion to what they take. They create employment instead of taking it, and that has been proven time and time again."
Countries which were great economies today, such as the US and Australia, were built by refugees and asylum-seekers. The same would happen in the Republic, he added.
Mr Taylor said the current situation in this State could be traced back to the treatment of Jews, Romas and gypsies expelled from Europe during the 1930s who were not welcomed in most European countries.
While he acknowledged the circumstances of the Holocaust were exceptional, Mr Taylor said: "What we are seeing in Ireland today is a continuation and a continued reflection of that policy and that is upsetting and disturbing and requires major campaigning from us all to highlight that fact."
Yesterday's event was organised by the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism and was att ended by refugees and asylum-seekers, Travellers, civil servants, academics and people working for anti-racist organisations.
Mr Thomas McCann, from the Irish Traveller Movement, said the challenge facing the Government was to translate policies into "real change on the ground". Racism was still a fact of life for Travellers, with many living in Third World conditions. He said a national education programme was needed to eradicate racism and discrimination.
Ms Anna Man Wah Watson from the Chinese Welfare Association in Belfast said it was not easy to be an ethnic minority in Northern Ireland, which was often referred to as a place of two traditions. She said it was no joke that people still asked her if she was a Catholic Chinese person or a Protestant one.
The Minister of State for Justice, Mr Chris Flood, told the meeting the Government would soon be able to ratify the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. The convention has already been ratified by 155 countries, including all other EU member-states.