At this Christmas season especially, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy pleads for more tolerance towards the incomers to our society.
'No room at the inn." Ever since those chilling words in the Gospel account of the first Christmas, Christians have associated Christmas with the idea of welcoming those who have no place to lay their heads, exiles in their homeland and other lands.
In Ireland we have the tradition of the candle in the window as a sign to the stranger that there is a welcome to be had at any house where it burns, and most of us with homes still light that Christmas candle. But I think we have forgotten its significance.
Since 1996 over 300,000 people have migrated to Ireland, the majority from EU countries; many are returned emigrants, and the others are people of many nationalities, cultures, religions, colour and economic status.
The term refugee/asylum-seeker is often used as a label to describe all immigrant groups in Ireland. Contrary to what people generally believe, only a small percentage of those coming to Ireland are seeking asylum, and only a small percentage of these are given refugee status.
The number of people who have applied for asylum since 1996 to November 2002 is approximately 49,000, and so far of these only 2,032 have been given refugee status. Of those who were refused, some have returned to their own country, some were deported, some are appealing and some may have disappeared.
Most people coming to Ireland are coming here to work. Since 1996 more than 114,073 work visas and permits have been issued to people from outside the EU. In other words, these people have come because they have been invited here to work. (EU and EEA citizens have a legal right to work here.)
The work permits are held by the employers, which means the worker is tied to that employer. This not only curtails the freedom of the worker but also is potentially open to exploitation. While many may be treated well by the employers, there is strong evidence that others are not only treated badly, but have their human rights breached in disgraceful ways. This happens in the absence of proper immigration policies and regulations.
Asylum-seekers, however, are denied the right to work in Ireland. According to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, almost 40 per cent of applicants for asylum are now disappearing from the system about 10 days after lodging their claims. Presumably they have left the State or are living here as undocumented migrants, open to exploitation and, if discovered, subject to immediate deportation.
Our returned emigrants are surely welcome, but what about the rest? They are welcome as long as they are feeding our economy, but what if they don't? What happens as the roar of our tiger economy fades to a whisper? What of those coming with fear in their eyes, hungry for safety and warmth, looking for a brighter future for themselves and their families and we turn them away because there is no room for them any more?
Just over a year ago on a RTÉ radio interview, US Senator Morrison warned us about the necessity of putting in place proper structures and procedures for the reception of immigrants of all sorts: workers who are badly needed to fill high-skill jobs, low-skilled or unskilled jobs; economic migrants, those coming from desperately poor countries in the hope of finding a better way of life in a wealthy one; and those fleeing the terror of ruthless regimes, seeking a place of safety and freedom.
If we are not clear - and we are not - about who we are prepared to receive, and how they are to be looked after and integrated once they get here, then we are storing up trouble for them and ourselves in the future. It is a year later, and we still haven't taken that warning seriously.
It is up to governments to put in place appropriate methods of receiving and looking after immigrants, but it is up to all of us as Christians, or simply as human beings, to develop a welcoming attitude to incomers.
They are coming, they are here, they will continue to come, and we will be sharing this island with them now and in the future. If we don't develop positive attitudes, we are going to create a massive problem not only for incomers but also for ourselves.
There are two ways of looking at the situation. There is the attitude that is so prevalent among generally well-disposed but confused people: we can't cope with this "influx", we are going to be "inundated", we have enough poor and homeless people of our own to look after. Or there is the attitude that Senator Morrison recommended: we can view the situation as positive, as a sign that we are a lucky country, able to attract people from all over the world.
Of course, we need to regulate immigration procedures. Of course, we need to be clear about who may come and settle here and how they should go about it. Of course, we need to discourage the awful traffic in human life that the present mish-mash of badly-thought-through procedures Europe actively encourages.
It is exactly one year since eight Turkish illegal immigrants were found dead in a cargo container in Wexford, an event that must make us hang our heads in shame. These atrocities didn't happen in a vacuum, they are directly connected with us and are influenced by any negative attitude we may have towards the "outsider".
Sister Stanislaus Kennedy of the Sisters of Charity is a noted campaigner for the homeless and disadvantaged.