Letter: Political leadership is to blame for racial tensions in Northern Ireland, not immigrant population
A letter from A J Carton:
Almost two years ago, as a recently retired school teacher, I wrote an article about how working-class communities experience immigration in a different way from middle class communities.
That article ended with a sentence that is still relevant today: ‘By ensuring that the pace of change is reasonable and that the burden is discussed and fairly shared by all sections of society we will be in a better place to help people resist the malign influence of those who would stir up racial tensions in Ireland for political advantage.’
I believed, back then, that unless there was greater leadership from unionist parties, our working-class areas could be misled into a racist response by those seeking political advantage.
Like Ben Lowry (If NI wants mass immigration so be it, but it comes with a cost, August 10), I attended the protest rallies in Belfast on Friday and spent some time on both sides of the protest and I was saddened to see the anger and resentment from fellow unionists who feel they have been neglected.
However, we need to be honest and say that the immigrant population are not to blame – there has been a failure of leadership on this from our politicians.
Brexit did cause an increase in immigration from outside the EU and areas like south Belfast have a much higher concentration of immigrants, primarily because of the proximity of the university and hospitals together with an established supply of rental accommodation.
The politicians who mistakenly promised that Brexit would reduce immigration are now trying to cover their error by importing rhetoric from England to shore up their support. Distrust of foreigners is easy to encourage and it is a tragedy that working class teenagers will get criminal records as a result.
Northern Ireland has lower numbers of immigrants than other parts of the UK and the pressure on services such as doctors, housing etc is caused by government spending priorities rather than pressure from immigration.
A serious conversation about immigration needs to be had, but not on our streets.
Last week I attended several of the West Belfast Festival discussions and was impressed by the scope and quality of discussion, as well as the sense of community.
I have argued on Twitter, and do so again here, that our unionist community needs to replicate some of what Féile an Phobail offers as a way of reducing tensions and increasing understanding of the process of change that all societies undergo.
A J Carton, Belfast BT6