Letter: After the recent disorder in Belfast, we must not do anything to encourage more violence
A letter from Arnold Carton:
The letter by Brian John Spencer, Woke lobby represents a danger to our people (June 18), deserves a response.
In the wake of the north Belfast knife attack, he argues at length against ‘mass migration’, despite the fact that no-one is advocating mass migration.
Furthermore, with Northern Ireland having only 6% of its residents born outside Northern Ireland and only 3.4% from an ethnic minority group compared to 18.3% for England, it is clear that ‘mass migration’ is not affecting Northern Ireland.
However, that does not mean we should not talk about migration, or the fact that it impacts more on working class communities than it does on middle class people.
Working class people are much more likely to experience migrant workers as being in competition for their jobs or for local housing. Working class communities are more likely to have a house of multiple occupancy (HMO) nearby and this sometimes causes strains.
Decades ago, as a student, living in a house with three other young males, I was aware that our presence in the street was not welcomed by the long-term residents.
I hope we behaved well, but the problems of young males living in HMOs in areas like the Holy Lands are well known. When those young males are from a different nationality, the tensions will be greater.
There is nothing wrong with discussing any of this and, contrary to the claims of some, these tensions have been discussed in the past.
However, the problem I would have with the letter is that it focuses on the idea that migrants are a significant threat to the safety of the people of Northern Ireland. This claim is not justified.
The greatest threat to the safety of white people living in Northern Ireland is other white people.
The letter focuses on the safety of women, but again the greatest threat to women in this country is from white men. Just look at the statistics of murder and assaults over the past years.
After a week when female nurses had to flee from their homes in Belfast because of racist violence, it is important that we do not do anything to encourage more violence.
Name calling people who welcome migrants as the ‘woke lobby’ and labelling them as ‘a danger to our people’ risks encouraging misguided fools to carry out further racist attacks as seems to have happened last week in Edinburgh.
Arnold Carton, Belfast BT6