Sir, - I refer to Marian Tannam's letter (May 5th) in which she took issue with a number of points raised in Aine McCarthy's earlier feature on the "Immigration Trail" (April 2nd). I am fully in agreement with Ms Tannam's argument that immigrants do not cause racism, but that their presence in society creates a situation in which racist attitudes more readily manifest themselves. This is already observable in the anti-immigrant stances of some of the candidates in the current election.
The manner in which Ms McCarthy's original article was edited meant that the comments I made were open to misinterpretation. My argument is that the experience in other European countries demonstrates how immigrants become scapegoats for a range of economic and social problems, particularly in communities facing decline. Deep seated ethnocentric attitudes and a suspicion of "the other" are more likely to be expressed when people are politically alienated and economically marginalised. While discriminatory practices may be addressed through legislative means, changing manifest and latent racist attitudes is much more problematic. I welcome the initiatives taken by groups such as Harmony in providing an analysis and promoting anti-racist policy in Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
Department of Sociology,
Maynooth College,
Co Kildare.