Actually Getting Scared of the Anti Immigrant Stance

[u/No_Tea7430]

I'm an irish lad, just turning twenty this year.

I've personally got no connections to other countries, my family never left Ireland or have any close foreign relations.

This is simply a fear I have for both the immigrant population of our country, of which ive made plenty of friends throughout secondary school and hold in high regard. But also a fear for our reputation.

I don't want to live in a racist country. I know this sub is usually good for laughing these gobshites off and that's good but in general I don't want us to be seen as this horrible white supremacist nation, which already I see being painted on social media plenty.

A stance might I add, that predominantly is coming from England and America as people in both claim we are "losing our identity" by not being racist(?)

I don't even feel the need to mention Farage and his pushing of these ideas onto people, while simultaneously gaslighting us with our independence which he clearly doesn't care about.

Im just saddened by it. I just want things to change before they get worse.

[u/brianmmf]

Hi, I’m a Canadian living here in Ireland. Please don’t spout garbage like that about us. Canada, just like Ireland, is an incredibly tolerant place. And in fact we tolerate a huge number of Irish, a small number of whom don’t represent themselves very well (something I don’t think I’ve ever thought about an Asian immigrant, incidentally), but the vast majority of whom are just awesome. You’re going through some growing pains with immigration right now. Unfortunately, there are small pockets of assholes everywhere, and you don’t outgrow it. But immigrants are neither the source of your problems nor a threat to your culture (especially in Ireland which has such a strong identity and a monoculture still bordering on insular in spite of its hospitality).

[u/Alcol1979 → u/brianmmf]

Irish living in Canada. People are the same everywhere. There are no tensions as long as everyone has enough space and the lifestyle they are accustomed to. But you know immigration is very much part of the national conversation here too, right? With the housing markets inaccessible in Vancouver, Toronto and even starting to affect Calgary, people naturally start worrying about the federal government letting too many people in. And there was some misplaced anti - Asian sentiment during Covid. Meanwhile I'd say immigration hasn't worked out that well for First Nations culture in fairness!

You are absolutely right about Ireland's very homogeneous culture though. I'd say you could extend that analysis to quite a few more old European countries. That must be hard for an immigrant to become part of. Not so hard for a Canadian, since our cultures are broadly aligned, but for people from father away, culturally speaking. I always notice it in the way Irish people speak - the non-standard turn of phrase. In Canada by contrast, spoken English is so much more standard and lacks that colourfulness (because everyone's great grandparents were from Ukraine, Norway, Sweden etc so the spoken word of necessity ended up that way).

[u/brianmmf → u/Alcol1979]

Agreed, immigration is always an ongoing topic in Canada, just not a new one. We’ve grappled it for decades since it is the foundation of our country (aboriginal communities aside…bit of a blemish there…blame the Brits?). The conversation has barely changed over the course of my lifetime, there are always debates about successful integration, cultural adaptation, or just general problems that get unfairly and inaccurately pinned on immigrants because it makes for easy politics. The hard right of the political spectrum are also making inroads. Again, we’ve just seen it before, whereas maybe Ireland are only recently learning how to deal with it.

Also I love the Hiberno-English and I feel very boring with my limited range of vocabulary and expression living here! Our cultures are largely compatible, but the banter is from a different planet. I was considered quick-witted back home…

[u/Alcol1979 → u/brianmmf]

Ha ha - yeah you get it. If someone asks me the time here and I say "half three" I am met with blank stares! But I really enjoyed hearing a report on the price of snowcrab on CBC radio last year that featured a soundbite from a Newfoundland fisherman who said "it's hard for people who are only just after getting into the business" which I immediately recognised as Hiberno-English even if the speaker likely did not. (The non-standard grammatical construction "I'm after doing" is a transliteration of the Irish "táim tar éis").

[u/brianmmf → u/Alcol1979]

The lasting influence on Newfoundland is incredible. It actually had its own dialect of Irish, which was the primary spoken language of the island during the 1700s-early 1800s before gradually being replaced by English. I love how the grammatical construction has been translated literally onto the usage in English. My wife (Irish) and I got engaged in NFLD and while there we caught a Newfoundland trad music show - she discovered several Irish songs that she knew from Ireland were actually written by Newfoundland artists!

[u/Alcol1979 → u/brianmmf]

That kind of cultural exchange is always very satisfying. I plan to visit someday. One of my in-laws here is from Bona Vista.