Time for a zero refugee policy? - *Read OP for mod warnings and threadbans - updated 11/5/24*

There has been some interesting polling recently showing that Irish people think that Ireland is a far better place to live now than it was several decades ago and have no wish to return to the older version. This is hardly a surprise - the earlier version had Catholic Church dominance, Dev, the Magdalene laundries, industrial schools, widespread poverty, strong media censorship, discrimination against most minorities, mass emigration etc etc.

The very fact that our population is growing quickly through natural means and immigration would suggest most people think the country is a good place to live. The Ireland of the 1950s - late 80s (one with zero immigration and a monoculture incidentally) was a very grim place with not much going for it.

Can you pass on the links so we can see those polls?

You seem to reference polls very regularly without actually giving any links.

It's not even worth addressing your pathetic attempt to throw in immigrants coming to Ireland since the 50s to 80s as a big reason Ireland is a great place to live.

The reason is the EU funding not immigrants, although I'm not shocked you overlooked the biggest factor why Ireland is not as grim as it used to be.

Seems a bit simplistic to say that EU funding has made Ireland a better place to live rather than immigrants. The truth is that it's been a whole array of things that have acted in combination — the globalisation of the Irish economy has been one big thing that has helped attract business here, which has in turn helped Ireland retain and eventually even attract young talent. Immigration has undoubtedly played a role in that. Being a successful country is not some perpetual stroll in the park though. Of course it means that migrants beyond the category of first world college graduates are going to want to come, and that presents challenges (and opportunities).

What it really comes down to is, in the reality of a world that is much smaller than it has ever been thanks to easier, safer travel and better telecommunications, successful prosperous and stable countries are going to attract migrants and are probably going to need migrants to generate an economy in the context of ageing populations. I don't really know what the alternative is, either drive the country's economy and / or respect of individual rights into the dirt — or ban emigration for Irish people and make them all stay here where they would be forced to focus on the national effort to 'save Ireland' from whatever doomsday scenario multiculturalism is apparently going to rain down upon us.

I certainly was and living in a working class part of Dublin. It was an awful period - widespread poverty all around me, many families couldn't afford a car, common for adult men to be unemployed rather than working. Also, a very inward and parochial society, not exposed to any outside ideas.

It's quite telling that it's this parochial and monoculture version of Ireland that the anti-immigration reactionaries would love to get back to. They're living in entirely the wrong era - they would be far more at home in Dev's version of Ireland.

How are people who want a cap on immigration looking for us to go back to how things were in the past?

How would stopping immigration put us into poverty and unemployment?

Of all your bizarre posts around immigration this must be near the top.

Please explain to me your reasoning behind your statement.

You never do back up your statements but this would be fascinating to understand.

You complete misread his post and the context and came up with weird conclusions. Try again. It's not difficult.

In terms of EU migration here - so long as we are part of the EU we can not implement an Australia type pick and choose system which puts our needs first.

For immigration from outside the EU it seems more hazy. We choose to have a very feckless approach for which the consequences are still embryonic but I think huge damage has already been done to this society and the fallout will be in the years ahead.

Even if we pull up the bridge it's just damage limitation of what has already been done.

I agree we should take only those with skills we need and we shouldn't be shy about it. Other countries aren't.

Asylum seekers should also have minimum requirements here too. Why shouldn't they?

Here you go : Ipsos Global Trends Survey, September 2021. Ireland one of the main outliers in that a majority of people have no wish to return to the Ireland of the past.

Surprised you where actually talking to an Egyptian at a social event considering you're never off here sprouting tripe.

105 pages in as you so eloquently put it yesterday and you still can't distinguish between skilled immigration, from America and scammers arriving from Europe.

An Egyptian he says. 😂

One example from 20k+.

I lived all through that period - met my future wife in 80s and we were easily able to find houses to rent as a couple near Dublin, even though wages were low. Able to save a bit, good interest rates then and eventually buy.

Our children are now in their 20/30s, haven't a hope of finding a house to rent near Dublin and if they do, without eating up the bulk of their wages. Whatever savings they have lose value with inflation and poxy interest rates.

And yet I hear, government people saying we have a duty to house people who've wafted into the country from god knows where and who demand their right to be housed.

Not convinced the system is better at all. In truth, I'd say it's screwed and this government is going down the tubes next election.

Yeah Stasdaz. This change is great 👍. The free for all open borders will bring nothing but improvements and prosperity. The future is so bright I need to wear shades.

https://youtube.com/shorts/mKNj2GPJC2U?feature=share

When people say we don’t want to go back to the dark days, they talk as if we didn’t have prosperity without the level of immigration/asylum seekers we have now…I was teenager/young adult in the 90s/2000s, so from the time I entered secondary school until the crash in 2007, the only Ireland I knew was booming, there was hope you could do anything (at least own a house!), there was positivity in the air, the streets felt safe, public services were good. Ireland had a soul and a vibrancy which sadly feels like it’s gone to me now.

So yeah, basically as a young person 20 years ago, I feel my life was vastly superior in many ways to what life would be like for someone like me now. How have we let standards of living slip backwards in the way that we have?