Ireland cannot lay the basis for a successful multi-ethnic society unless it ceases to imagine itself in mono-cultural tribal terms, it has been argued.
Suggesting there was a "received myth" of how well Ireland is handling immigration, Piaras Mac Éinrí, a migration specialist at University College Cork, warned that integrating recent arrivals would require recognition of Ireland's long-standing diversity.
Rather than the notion of a "virtual identity", which had a powerful resonance for the diaspora but, perhaps ironically, also reinforced the notion of a community based on blood, what was needed was a "counter-history."
He said such a "counter-history" would tell the history of the country and its multiple peoples and diasporas, not in the tribal sense of a 'core nation' constantly beset by successive invasions, but in terms of an accumulation of encounters and syntheses over many centuries.
Mr Mac Éinrí said the challenge is not so much one of recognising Ireland's 'new' diversity but of validating the diversity which was always there but which has too often gone unrecognised."
Separately, Dr Ronit Lentin of Trinity College Dublin, contended that the 2004 citizenship referendum was evidence of "state racism". She suggested this racism was also gendered in that women migrants, alleged to be coming to Ireland to give birth to Irish citizens, were specifically targeted.
Dr Lentin also strongly criticised the proposed Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill for compelling "non-nationals" (defined as non-European Economic Area migrants) to carry identity cards at all times. "The proposed Bill prohibits foreign nationals to change their names, except where authorised. It forbids foreign nationals to marry without first notifying the Minister [for Justice], and forbids asylum seekers and holders of non-renewable residence to marry at all," Dr Lentin said.
