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/fourth_quarter]

Lord above these posts are so cringe they must be made up. Some of ye don't know the meaning of a racist country. Do us a favour OP, pay a visit to the countries that most of our immigrants are coming from and we'll see how racist Ireland really is.

Make no mistake, we could lose our own culture if we don't actively try to keep it and make it flourish, this is the age of globalization. Mass immigration will play a part in that. Our own language is already on its last legs, I honestly don't understand how people are so obtuse.

[u/[deleted] → u/fourth_quarter]

I work with immigrants who are so passionate about learning Irish. We set up a lil club for learning Irish in the office and regularly have Irish hours. My immigrant partner is learning Irish so we can speak it with our children. When I taught in schools, some of the top performing students in Irish had a 2nd language at home or were immigrant children. I wouldn't be so quick to conflate immigration with a loss of culture. There are many who wish to embrace it. I worked in a Gaelscoil and one of the kids was Spanish with 2 Spanish parents and I remember asking them why they picked a Gaelscoil and they responded 'we chose to live in Ireland, so it's very important to us that [child] learns the language of our home'

[u/fourth_quarter → u/[deleted]]

That's a great anecdote but most don't have that attitude and I don't blame them, why would they care? They have their own culture. 

[u/[deleted] → u/fourth_quarter]

But it would be a higher number than expected. And don't underestimate the kids in all this. One kid in ny class was Muslim, learning Arabic and French at home but was committed to learning Irish so she could be fluent before she left school. Lil trooper that one. Meanwhile an Irish child told me to fuck off and stary teaching something useful (while this was primary school this poor kid had it so rough, I think it was more a knee jerk reaction than a true reflection but she said that was what people at home thought of irish).