Sun Migrants

When a white, especially English speaking person, decides to live in another country (usually a hot one), they are pleasantly referred to as Ex-Pats (at the very least, they should be called sun-migrants). And though they might, to a degree, annoy the locals, they are generally accepted. Everyone else who packs up and moves to another country, especially those of darker hues, are referred to as migrants, immigrants and asylum seekers, classifications that create immediate visions of job stealing, system abusing, terror inducing, thieving, uneducated, dangerous people. People who will arrive in hordes upon hordes, if you let them.

When we first moved to Ireland, although we arrived without money, degrees or job prospects, we were fully accepted. 

And I appreciate that. 

Our landlady welcomed us with a cake and a warm range. We were invited to the pub where her family placed pints of Guinness before us with encouraging smiles. And they kept coming. A long line of stout built up that we struggled to finish and failed. Perfectly poured pints of Guinness were sadly wasted that day. It's a lovely memory. And this welcome is not out of character for the Irish.

But I do wonder if we had held different passports, had different accents and skin color, would that have happened? I doubt it.

Having said that, although anti-refugee sentiment is sadly growing louder in Ireland, the majority of Irish are welcoming and charitable towards them. (2024:situation worsening)

It's painfully obvious the internet is not helping matters.

Pre-pandemic, I visited LA. I was amazed and disturbed when a nice guy I was speaking to informed me that in Dublin, African refugees were attacking Dubliners. I immediately refuted this by saying that if that were true, I would have heard about this on the news. He said, no, because they don't want you to know.  I said, well if that were true, I would have heard it through the grapevine. Yet, he repeatedly insisted it was true because he had read it online.

Our perception of strangers is not usually based on reality. And our propensity towards stereotyping is further compounded by the lies and exaggeration found on the internet.

As said, when we came to Ireland we were, heartily, welcomed by the locals. They bought us drinks, invited us over for tea and sandwiches placing us in the best seats before the roaring fires. They might have found us a bit odd, but an oddness that was interesting and entertaining. Because they had no negative prejudice against us they were able to get to know us as people and vice versa. We were all able to mutually enrich each other’s lives to a certain extent. We were harmless to them and that is the key.

But why were we considered harmless? We were two young people without money or jobs, we brought no wealth into the country and therefore could have been seen as a threat to the employment opportunities which were and are again scarce. Surely, our skin color played a part in our harmlessness. If we had been African, even rich Africans, I doubt we would have been received in the same, easy-going manner. They felt comfortable with us because we were from countries they understood.

I am not saying there is absolutely no truth in stereotypes. But it is based on a very limited truth. And worse, it is a perception that ignores the reasons behind certain negative stereotypes. Usually the people who have the most insistent criticisms, dislikes and outright hatred towards another race, belong to a race whose historical actions caused trauma for the race they despise. And that trauma can sometimes fuel negative behavior that reinforces the negative stereotyping. An ongoing cycle of discrimination causing trauma, compounded by a hierarchal setup that presents some as ex-pats and others as migrants etc.  

Our brains need to slot everybody into manageable files, that's how we operate. And we must remain alert to this dangerous trap.

We are more than what our brains can handle.

A note to any Irish going down the road of intolerance.

Having been victims of oppression and discrimination the Irish should be the first to empathize and in turn embrace refugees. Were not famine ships filled with Irish asylum seekers. Even back in the day, it seems to me the Irish should have been siding with American Indians and the enslaved instead of lapping up the culture of the colonizer.