Sir, – Jean-Claude Juncker has proposed a redistribution of migrants, who are now reclassified as being refugees when it is patently obvious that most are not ("Juncker calls on EU to take in 160,000 migrants", September 9th). It seems many are simply strong-arming and emotionally blackmailing their way towards what they see as a better life. Uncontrolled immigration may well destroy what they seek.
For some reason we in Ireland are singled out by Mr Juncker’s comment that there is a reason there are more Murphys and O’Neills in the US than at home in Ireland.
Of course, what he fails to understand is that all nations that took us in since the Famine did so willingly and, apart from the more recent and relatively insubstantial number of “undocumented” in the US, we went to these countries legally. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK DOGGETT,
Walkinstown,
Dublin 12.
Sir, – No doubt Jean-Claude Juncker’s remark that “there is a reason the number of O’Neills and Murphys living in the US exceeds the number in Ireland” will have certain commentators rush to tell us that Irish immigration was different as “they went there to work”, even though almost all of the current refugees want to work, which is why they are trying to reach certain countries.
The reality is that during the Famine many of the Irish were so ill from typhus and malnutrition they were in no fit state to work when they reached North America.
During the years 1847-1848, mass immigration caused a typhus epidemic in Canada, yet it continued to accept our desperate people – all the while French-Canadian “Grey Nuns” put their own lives at risk by treating our gravely ill.
In more recent times, several countries continued to accept our migrants while they were experiencing economic recession and yet we have among us those who begrudge refuge to people who are fleeing guns, bombs and other horrors in their homeland. – Yours, etc,
JOHN BELLEW,
Dunleer,
Co Louth.
Sir, – And still the squabbling continues and the meanness of mind. Europe should be able to assimilate less than 1 per cent of its combined populations.
Now is the time to affirm our human values. We might become a new United States, a beacon of light and hope to the tired and fearful.
It is an opportunity for leadership and vision. We need both. – Yours, etc,
JOSEPH McDONNELL,
Churchtown,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – The millions attempting to escape tyranny, poverty and misery will change the political, cultural and economic landscape everywhere.
An American liberal, Gore Vidal, in a lecture in Dublin in 1999 entitled “The Folly of Mass Immigration”, said: “Liberal tradition requires that borders must always be open to those in search of safety, or even the pursuit of happiness. But now, with so many millions of people on the move, even the great-hearted are becoming edgy. Norway with its arctic archipelago is large enough and empty enough to take in 40 to 50 million homeless Bengalis. If the Norwegians say that, all in all, they would rather not take them in, is this to be considered racism? I think not. It is simply self-preservation, the first law of species.” – Yours, etc,
SIDNEY LOWRY,
Bangor,
Co Down.
Sir, – Concerning the current humanitarian crisis, Norma MacMaster (September 9th) asks "where is the US? And Canada? Where is Australia? "
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR publishes the totals of refugees accepted for resettlement, by country, annually. Every year three countries top the list – the US, Australia and Canada. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Vienna.
Sir, – In her recent article on the migrant crisis ("Days of searing images and a biblical flow of humanity", Opinion & Analysis, September 5th), Kathy Sheridan wrote of how important it was not to confuse the terms "migrant" and "refugee".
I am afraid the confusion is on her own part. The Syrians heading into Europe are not refugees from war. They were refugees when they crossed the border into Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Having reached there, they were no longer fleeing bombs and bullets.
They now find themselves with a greatly reduced standard of living in camps or among the host population. They are saying, just like so many in sub-Saharan Africa have said for decades, “There is no future for me or my children here; we will go to Europe”.
It is greatly to be regretted that the UN has received only 25 per cent of the funding it required to service these Syrians, but that is a separate issue. – Yours, etc,
ÁINE NÍ CHONAILL,
Immigration Control
Platform,
PO Box 6469, Dublin 2.
A chara, – Ranked ninth on the Index of Economic Freedom, can we be grateful that Ireland has the capacity to help the Syrian citizens rather than fear the cost to ourselves? Can we equip those coming with the necessary tools and knowledge that they may join us as valued equals in our workplaces and communities?
Can we provide for them the necessary structures, thereby viewing this as an opportunity to reimagine comprehensively the means by which we address the needs of our existing marginalised and vulnerable? With proper distribution of our wealth we can do both.
Can we not ask why us, but why not us, as but for an accident of birth, it could very well be us?
The people of Syria are not fleeing their homes in search of a better life, but to save their lives. Can we respond with the appropriate level of reason and humanity? – Is mise,
CATE MacGABHANN,
Clonmel,
Co Tipperary.