The “Irish question”: marginalizations at the nexus of sociology of migration and ethnic and racial studies in Britain

Mary J Hickman,Louise Ryan

doi:10.1080/01419870.2020.1722194

Mary J Hickman, Louise Ryan

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1722194

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite constituting one of the largest migrant groups, the Irish have been overlooked in most British sociological research on migration and ethnicity. We explore how this came about and examine its costs in relation to stigmatization and national security. The relative silence among British sociologists throughout the war in Northern Ireland and its impact on the Irish in England, requires further explanation. This neglect resulted in a failure to learn lessons from the past especially about the potential impact of counter-terrorism practices on Muslim communities. Furthermore, we show how unpacking the compressed category of whiteness helps to understand the dynamic interplay of other identity markers such as accent, religion, nationality and class in shaping how different groups of white migrants, especially Eastern/Central Europeans, have been perceived, represented and racialized in various public discourses.

Highlights

In recent years, as the UK government negotiated a Brexit deal, many were surprised at the critical ways in which Ireland has impacted on British-EU relations
Ireland is invisible to England in a way Britain/England can never be invisible to Ireland.1. This was almost laughably revealed when the former Minister of State for Northern Ireland, Karen Bradley, admitted that she was “unaware that nationalists did not vote for unionists and that unionists did not vote for nationalists” (Carroll 2018)
Boris Johnson, while Foreign Secretary, commenting on the EU requirement for a backstop dealing with the Irish border in any Brexit negotiation said that it was a folly that “the tail was wagging the dog” (Blaney 2018) and on another occasion likened the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland to that between the London boroughs of Camden and Westminster for congestion charge purposes (Leahy 2019)

Summary

Introduction

As the UK government negotiated a Brexit deal, many were surprised at the critical ways in which Ireland has impacted on British-EU relations. Some researchers have noted this neglect or lack of integration of Irish experiences into the nexus of sociology of migration and ethnic and racial studies (Miles 1982; Hickman 1995, 1998; Mac an Ghaill 2000, 2001; Garner 2006; Ryan 2007; Virdee 2014).

Results

Conclusion