Sir, - I am concerned at the increasing polarisation among your readers in regard to immigration. There are many idealists who seem to display a pharisaical arrogance and hypocrisy, posturing, moralising and lecturing to us lesser mortals. I often wonder how these politically correct paragons of virtue would react if the authorities planned a halting site or a hostel for African asylum seekers next to their liberal homes.
The letter of May 5th from Jon Ihle of New York is a case in point. Mr Ihle regaled us with an account of his successes and his academic achievements and used intemperate language to mock Jackie Healy-Rae and his supporters. His letter may be summarised concisely:
1. Ireland is very lucky to have an immigrant of Mr Ihle's calibre (though he is not an asylum-seeker, so his analogy is irrelevant).
2. Jackie Healy-Rae and his supporters are morons.
Would it be churlish to remind Mr Ihle that not so long ago his fellow citizens in his capital city elected a known convicted criminal as Mayor of Washington, DC; but the mayor was black and the electorate is 75 per cent black, so I shouldn't have the temerity to raise this point. Mr Ihle, in spite of his academic excellence, has failed to grasp that Jackie Healy-Rae is a very astute politician; and Kerry people are no fools.
We live in a world of images: most Irish people perceive Asian immigrants from the Levant to the Philippines as industrious workers and high academic achievers and would, Islamic militants apart, welcome reasonable numbers of immigrants from that continent. From a purely selfish viewpoint I would be very happy to have, for example, Jewish or Japanese neighbours. But, bearing in mind that every rule has its exceptions, I would be very apprehensive about having Travellers, Romanians or sub-Saharan Africans living next door to me.
Let us be realistic: the vast majority of asylum-seekers are bogus. Dr Garret FitzGerald (Opinion, May 6th) quotes a figure of 85 per cent. The Interior Minister of Germany puts the figure for his country at 97 per cent, which may well be nearer to the mark for Ireland. And that, Sir, is the kernel of the controversy. - Yours, etc.,
John McGeorge, Doonbeg, Co Clare.