INNOCENT
Madam, - Those who call for the deportation of all asylum-seekers and non-national residents together with their Irish-born children, regardless of the number of years the asylum-seekers and non-national residents have spent in Ireland should think again.
I could not but stop and ponder over the brilliant and wonderful contributions Clinton Morrison and Steven Reid made to Irish football success last Wednesday at Hamden Park, Scotland. People such as Morrison, Reid, McGrath and Samantha Mumba, to name but a few, are shining examples of Irish people of colour who have made significant contributions to this country.
The above-mentioned people may be said to have come from the "right" side of the black or coloured Irish folk since they were born here, grew up here and educated here and the circumstances surrounding their births were not in any way similar to the tens of thousands of children given birth to by non-national residents and asylum seekers in the years since the Fajujonu case.
However, some of the colour-conscious and racist people who a few weeks ago were in support of a two-tier citizenship system in regard to Irish-born children of asylum-seekers should stop for a minute and think of the wonderful contributions these children will make in the different spheres of life of this beautiful country in the next 20 years. France was able to win the 1998 world cup owing largely to the contributions of immigrants and their descendants. Zinedine Zidane and his parents were not originally from France. There are in the United Kingdom today members of parliament who are children of former asylum-seekers and immigrants.
An asylum-seeker is not just a person with tattered clothes and unshaven beard who flees another country and comes into the protecting country to depend on the welfare system of the latter. He is also a person who may have the potential to contribute to the cultural, economic and intellectual spheres of life of the protecting country. Albert Einstein, discovered of the theory of relativity, was a refugee or asylum-seeker. - Yours, etc.,
INNOCENT ANOWE-CHUKWUEZI, Laurel Lodge, Dublin 15.