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

The whole Irish system needs reforming, but here's a fairly binary one taking a leaf from Denmark's example: Should Ireland only accept numbers of refugees in line with the UN's quota system? Yes/No. That and the Dane's other measures dropped the numbers of asylum applicants from 20,000+ to 1500 pre covid. While other EU nations are waking up to and tackling the problems around immigration and indeed the shaky politic of multiculturalism itself, Ireland as usual is at least a decade behind. It seems hoping that this time, somehow and magically, Ireland won't face the clear issues of both that every single other EU nation has had to deal with going back generations.

In your apparent keeness to wheel out the racism angle you make a clumsy error. Nationality does not equal race. Indeed it's even "racist" to suggest it does.

And you can guarantee there will be a two tier system based on "race" in Ireland. There already is. Just like every other European nation dealing with the sociopolitic of multiculturalism for many decades. In Ireland today after barely a generation of newly minted Irish multiculturalism who is more likely to be unemployed/in receipt of state benefits, more likely to be a victim of racism? Ask a smattering of Dubliners where are the Black areas in Dublin and you should get an answer. Ask the same Dubliners where the Polish areas are and they'll struggle to do so. Yet at last count there are four times as many Poles in Ireland as Black African folks. The latter(though I doubt they were ever asked if they wanted it) get a Black History month, the former don't get a wet Tuesday in November. Why? The squeaky wheel gets the grease. A sop to cover questions that may have complex and difficult answers.

Again these are the hard realities, realities that are observable in every single EU nation and in most cases over a few generations with it. Pick any EU nation with all their different histories, cultures, politics and migration histories. Show me an example of one where those who are Black/Brown/most different to the local population aren't more likely to be under employed, poorer, etc. Hint; you can't. And you think Ireland of all nations will be the magical outlier? Them and Us exists, racism exists, from "mild" to overt. It's not going away and you can't magic it away with hopes and dreams.

The joke is it's nearly always the White "locals" who have this optimism, nay magical thinking around this matter. Those who are Black and living with the realities of modern multiculturalist societies can have very different views. The first generations not so much. It's their kids and grandkids who have far more of the feeling that they've been sold a pup and in ways the kids and grandkids of White immigrants rarely have to consider.

The asylum process? The Syrian war raging for over a decade caused one of the largest mass migrations of refugees since WW2. How many Syrians did Ireland take in? 3000, over a decade, all vetted to beat the band. Within a month of the Ukrainian war breaking out we took in ten times that number, with zero vetting, just show up. I can't help but muse that the latter's European Whiteness was one factor that influenced this.

And I think you must have read my post incorrectly.

I don't think I did. You stated quite clearly as an opener: "There wasn't any question on immigration put to the people of Ireland." When quite clearly there was. Those who promoted the change said it was. Those who opposed the change couldn't stop themselves from saying it was and called it "racist" in intent. The 19th Amendment that backed the GFA and brought in this Jus Soli loophole noted in the information literature that is could raise problems around immigration.

A simplistic absolutist eh? You can have fake asylum seekers. We have processes to weed those out. If they didn't exist we wouldn't. If a fake asylum seeker happens to pass those processes and becomes an official refugee, they are by definition a fake refugee. This is pretty basic logic here.