As the British general election approaches we are seeing a lot of the good old political issues being taken down from the attic for the traditional bun fights; healthcare spending, the growing disparity between rich and poor, general governmental incompetence, stealth taxes etc.

It’s the current affairs equivalent of going to your Mam and Dad’s for Christmas and watching Home Alone while secretly decimating a box of Scots Clan (just me?). Except for one thing, when watching Nigel Farage and David Cameron battle it out to be the preeminent opposition to immigration it starts to feel like the current affairs equivalent of people calling it Boxing Day, instead of Stephen’s Day, and that’s when you remember that this is actually a foreign election cycle.

“Parties with an anti-immigration ideology have entered government in Denmark, Norway, Italy, Austria, The Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia…

There are clearly votes to be won and newspapers to be sold in Britain for those opposing immigration. If you Google ‘Daily Mail immigrant’ you can be regaled for hours by tales of immigration; the cost of immigrants, immigrants who eat swans, an immigrant who got a job as a FTSE 100 company director until everyone realised he was just a giant chicken… Very compelling stuff, even though one of them may be the story line of a cartoon.

This trend is reflected in many of our neighbouring countries in the EU too. Parties with an anti-immigration ideology have entered government in Denmark, Norway, Italy, Austria, The Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia in the last 15 years. Then there’s France with Marine Le Pen and her National Front party polling at 25% of the vote in last month’s local elections. All of which begs the question, where are their Irish counterparts hiding?

There is no major political party in Ireland trying to make any political capital from an anti-immigrant stance, which seems at odds with much of what can be seen in modern European politics. In Ireland, immigration as a political issue is usually concerned with the movement to legalise Irish immigrants in the US or Australia. When talking of the newly arrived Irish the tone is usually one of bemusement, ‘Brazilian corner-forward points 3-4 for Gort to win Junior B Camogie final!’

As tempting as it is to credit this to some kind of genetic predisposition to tolerance and a ‘Céad míle fáilte’ mentality, that would really involve mounting the highest of horses. The reality probably lies in the fact that when it comes to migration we have always been far more concerned with the outward flow of people than those coming in.

[pulquote] “The path to Britain, Australia and the Americas has been an extremely well beaten one… [/pullquote]

Ireland is in a very select club of countries, which actually saw their populations decline between 1850 and 1950. At this time microbiology, vaccinations and modern standards of hygiene were established reducing mortality rates immensely around the world. Advances in farming and industry also created a booming population across Europe. This is a legacy that has cut deep into our psyche and continues to have its effect today. Incidentally, one of the only other countries that experienced a similar decline to Ireland is Montserrat, ‘the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean’.

The path to Britain, Australia and the Americas has been an extremely well beaten one since The Great Famine and is relaid with every economic crisis that we face. So when the narrative is one in which the country grieves over coffin ships and ‘Mac eile ag imeacht’, it would take a generation long marketing shove to convince us that the problem isn’t that people are leaving, but that there are people coming here. Yet, there are groups out there trying to do just that.

Step forward Áine Ní Chonaill and the Immigration Control Platform. As stated on their homepage: “There are 190 organisations in Ireland advocating for immigration. We are the only organised voice for immigration control.” The group appears to be ahead of its time though, as the electorate failed to elect Ní Chonaill in both the 1997 and 2002 general elections.

However, the Immigration Control Platform and Áine Ní Chonaill continue to contribute to the debate to this day gaining intermittent media attention. Maybe their day in the sun will arrive if they are lucky enough to unearth a leader of Nigel Farage’s rare charms in some dystopian future, but for the moment theirs is a lonely furrow to be ploughed.

For anyone who doesn’t remember…

Photos: Euro Realist Newsletter, ArdFern and Tesco.