Despite continuing evidence of unfair treatment by employers and gardaí, election year was a better one for immigrants than some had feared, writes Nuala Haughey, Social and Racial Affairs Correspondent
The year saw an ongoing demand for migrant labour despite forecasts of a sharp slowdown in employment growth, and the number of new asylum claimants exceeded 10,000 for the third year running. The preliminary census figures in July showed Ireland in 2002 as a country of net inward migration for only the second period since the foundation of the State in 1921.
The potentially inflammatory immigration issue was largely absent from public discourse during May's general election campaign as political parties agreed not play the "race card".
The single-issue immigration-control candidate, Cork schoolteacher Áine Ní Chonaill, polled poorly in Dublin's South Central constituency. And while people on the doorsteps grumbled about too many foreigners coming to Ireland to have babies, the country continued to stand apart from many other EU states in not producing a charismatic far-right leader able to harness such street-level discontent.
However, fears about immigration surfaced during the summer debate on the Nice Treaty referendum, which ultimately endorsed EU enlargement. Some campaigners warned that supporting Nice would lead to "floods" of eastern European workers undercutting Irish workers' wages and threatening jobs.
These claims were countered vigorously by trade unionists and politicians, but the debate nevertheless exposed a dangerous seam of xenophobia, which has accompanied the recent high levels of inward migration.
Illegal immigration came under the spotlight when gardaí targeted undocumented migrant workers and failed asylum-seekers evading deportation in the high-profile Operation Hyphen in June.
Six hundred gardaí visited some 294 premises in Dublin and the regions in an operation that smacked of style over substance. Out of a total of 140 people arrested, only 15 were deported. Seventy-four others were charged with immigration-related offences and one sought asylum. Fifty people were released without charge, having proven that they were legal residents here. While the immigration authorities clearly have a duty to check illegal immigration, it appears that such "sting" operations are more about PR than actual results.
A particularly disturbing example of the exploitation of illegal immigrants was exposed when three Brazilian workers successfully sued a former model turned director of a cleaning company, who was responsible for pay and conditions reminiscent of Charles Dickens's time.
The workers were awarded more than €50,000 in October after the High Court heard that they had been promised £1,000 a month and an eight-hour working day but instead found themselves working 15-hour days without pay, depending on the goodwill of a priest and neighbour who provided them with food.
The case illustrated a growing trend, noted by the Equality Authority, of complaints by immigrant workers of discrimination on race grounds. All too often, they were paid less than their Irish counterparts or found that illegal deductions had been taken from their wages.
It also highlighted how, in the absence of stringent employer sanctions and an adequately resourced investigative regime, employers determined to exploit their workers are neither easily deterred nor detected.
The processing of asylum claims continued to be more streamlined, with a steady reduction in backlogs. More than 10,000 asylum-seekers made claims to remain in Ireland as refugees fleeing persecution, with Nigerians and Romanians still figuring as the top two nationalities.
Spanking new offices on Burgh Quay in Dublin opened for the registration of overseas students and workers living legally in the State, with more staff and increased opening hours, leading to the welcome disappearance of the interminable queues witnessed the previous year.
A new Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, brought considerable vigour to his post, pledging to "sort out" once and for all the asylum area, which costs some €300 million annually. His officials worked on measures for the coming year aimed at reducing the numbers of asylum applicants, nine out of 10 of whom, McDowell pointed out, are actually found to be economic migrants.
The next 12 months will show whether his words are being translated into action.