LAST AUTUMN, the country witnessed the disgraceful spectacle of immigrant children being refused access to their local primary schools in the Dublin region. It made a mockery of the Government's policy of integration. And there is every chance it will recur because of overcrowding and the structure of our education system.
The Catholic Church says it is unfair to blame its enrolment policy for the exclusions and it accuses the Department of Education of bad planning. That may be so, but the Catholic Church controls 90 per cent of national schools at a time of inadequate capacity in some areas and when 12 per cent of school-going children come from migrant families.
Minister of State for Integration Conor Lenihan was in congratulatory mood at the Parnell Summer School when he praised teachers for the way they had coped with the situation during the past 10 years. There had, he said, been an eight-fold increase in the number of English language teachers in primary schools, in response to demand. Inward migration was likely to become a permanent feature of Irish society, he continued. And we had a great opportunity to create an open and tolerant society.
Mr Lenihan is right about the opportunity. But translating that opportunity into reality is the challenge. Integration is the key to an open and tolerant society. It is, however, a two-way street in which the receiving society must undergo change, as indeed should new arrivals. That will require a close examination of how things have been done in the past and a willingness to alter them where necessary. It will not be easy especially as the economy declines and unemployment levels rise.
Concern has been expressed that the Government may cut funding to integration programmes. The number of immigrants coming here is falling. But services are still inadequate and need development. There have been indications of a hardening of official attitudes towards immigrants. Mr Lenihan spoke of requiring a proficiency in English from all migrant workers who apply for a work visa, and not just from those who wish to become citizens or permanent residents. Swingeing powers, providing for the arrest and automatic deportation of illegal immigrants and other measures, are included in the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill, now before the Dáil. It would be a great mistake to pause in the work of integration. It would be a greater error to believe it can be achieved without changing traditional structures.