Asylum Seekers In Ireland Research Articles

Intersecting vulnerabilities and compounded risks of women asylum seekers working in care during COVID-19 in Ireland

This article explores findings from a qualitative participatory study with asylum seekers in Ireland employed in the healthcare sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. By extending an intersectional analysis framework, we demonstrate how the vulnerability of care workers living within the international protection accommodation system ‘under the care’ of the state intersects with power exercised by the neoliberal care market and is compounded by global health controls instituted during the pandemic. Participants reveal a lack of autonomy and forms of precarity that were not faced by other care workers, particularly increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 and multiple forms of stigma.

Carceralities and Approved Gender Violence: The Case of Direct Provision in Ireland

In this article, we argue that Direct Provision in Ireland is a state approved form of gendered carcerality which creates and exacerbates conditions of gendered violence. Direct Provision is a system of processing asylum seekers in Ireland where they are temporarily provided accommodation while they wait for a decision on their refugee status claim. This article shows how carceral practices are layered and gendered, making some spaces and bodies more carceral than others. These carceralities increase the institutional burden which agglomerates in human bodies and makes the lives of an already precarious population unliveable. Through a review of the strategies adopted by the government in relation to migrants, undocumented workers and asylum seekers, this article shows how the gendered experiences of certain asylum seekers like mothers and sexual violence survivors become the political site where state approved carceral practices and gendered violence merge.

‘I am because you are’: A critical reflection on composing choral music to promote social inclusion for asylum seekers in Ireland

This article presents a critical reflection from a composer embedded in a national community-music project centred around asylum seekers. This reflection-on-action is contextualized within wider scholarly discourse in community music, including the notion of ‘hospitality’ and the generic features of participatory performance. An account is given of the research and analysis that informed the composer’s process for the choral work, the Song Seeking Songbook (2019). This collection of six pieces is tailored to the specific context of the project, which aimed to provide a stimulating basis for musical engagement in order to promote social inclusion. The effective pre-existing repertoire is explored to identify the key musical features that helped articulate the core principles of composition. A selection of the newly composed songs is discussed to demonstrate how these principles were deployed in the final composition.

Inclusion for all; all for inclusion

The title of this editorial speaks to the aspirational goal of inclusion for proponents and practitioners of community music. Inspired by feminist care ethics, Janelize Morelli’s article connects care with love, compassion and Lee Higgins’s oft-cited concept of hospitality. Seán Doherty’s article provides a personalized insight into a composer’s struggles to reconcile conservatory-trained musical thinking with the participatory goal of promoting social inclusion for asylum seekers in Ireland. Lotte Latukefu and Irina Verenikina’s article extends the dialogue on street music by describing the informal learning efforts by the Australian organizers of HONK! Oz. The articles ‘The CI Music Hour’ and ’Exploring approaches to community music delivery by practitioners with and without additional support needs’ address inclusion more directly – the former through a study of the experiences of those with cochlear implants, the latter by interrogating the possibilities of including those with additional support needs as leaders, not just as followers. Finally, Karl Gunther’s article considers the historical practice of auditions for community choirs.

Spaces of Racialization: Ireland’s Direct Provision Asylum Centres as Sites of Racialized State Violence

Since November 1999, people arriving in Ireland to seek asylum have been dispersed throughout the country and confined in Direct Provision (DP) accommodation centres. Though initially meant for a six-month stay, by May 2020 7,700 people were living in 85 DP and emergency accommodation centres, many of them for up to nine years. The centres are operated by for-profit private companies who have been paid 1.6 billion euros since 2000, and are mostly sited in remote locations outside cities, on the periphery of society. The confinement of asylum seekers has been disavowed by state and society and continues the disavowal by Irish state and society of the coercive confinement of unwed mothers and poor children in church-run institutions, where women and children were confined and enslaved until late in the twentieth century. This article is based on interviews with and publicly available testimonies of asylum seekers in Direct Provision and on public and social media statements by the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI). It theorizes the DP centres as racialized zones of nonbeing (Fanon 1967: 8) and the DP regime as racialized state violence. The segregation and racialization of asylum seekers in Direct Provision were poignantly demonstrated by asylum seekers’ inability to observe social distancing in overcrowded DP centres during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to a considerable number of them being infected.

Direct Provision, Rights and Everyday Life for Asylum Seekers in Ireland during COVID-19

This article considers the impact of COVID-19 on international protection applicants in the Irish asylum system. It presents a critical reflection on the failings of direct provision and how the experience of COVID-19 has further heightened the issues at stake for asylum seekers and refugees living in Ireland. In Ireland, international protection applicants are detained in a system of institutionalized living called direct provision where they must remain until they receive status. Direct provision centres offer substandard accommodation and are often overcrowded. During the pandemic, many asylum seekers could not effectively socially isolate, so many centres experienced COVID-19 outbreaks. This article examines these experiences and joins a community of scholars calling for the urgent end to the system of direct provision.

Unraveling the Thread of Tradition: Between History and Memory in Melatu Okorie's "If George Could Talk"

Unraveling the Thread of Tradition:Between History and Memory in Melatu Okorie's "If George Could Talk" Sara Martín-Ruiz (bio) melatu okorie is a nigerian-born, Irish-based author who had to endure the harsh reality of the Direct Provision system firsthand as an asylum-seeker in Ireland. In her short story "If George Could Talk," she presents a female narrator, Jumi, who finds herself doomed to a liminal existence, from her coming-of-age ritual in Nigeria to her eventual arrival in Ireland as an asylum-seeker, never actually fitting in.1 The only thing that remains with her throughout this process is the George, a traditional Nigerian cloth that figuratively reflects her family story as well as the history of a transnational, colonial past, the consequences of which are still very much felt in the present. In the short story, the George becomes a metaphor for Jumi's inability to ascribe meaning to her own life, a dilemma that reaches its climax when she and her children become asylum-seekers in Ireland. Hence, a constant attempt to understand what the George signifies takes place throughout the story, as the narrator tries to make sense of the different circumstances she has to face. Clothing has a history of being read as a signifier for alienation. Eleonora Chiavetta, in discussing the fiction of female migrant authors, argues that "Clothes are a way to externalize the internalized conflict of the families, and later on . . . express the internalized exile of the character."2 Ketu H. Katrak uses the term "internalized exile" to describe a process by which, as a consequence [End Page 40] of a (post)colonial experience, the racialized female body becomes disconnected from itself and the subject lacks agency.3 A similar reading of the George can be undertaken in "If George Could Talk." On the one hand, it is used as a means to externalize certain suppressed aspects of Jumi's past, such as her great-grandfather's involvement in slave trading or her mother's death after giving birth to her. On the other hand, it expresses Jumi's own internalized exile. Jumi is anxious from the first moment she puts on the George for her Umu-Ogbo ceremony, suggesting unease with the traditional female roles she is being asked to accept. Later, the George expresses the disorientation of her exile from Nigeria as she confronts her asylum-seeker status in Ireland. In this article, I argue that the George acts as a kind of objective correlative of Jumi's prior alienation in Nigeria and, later, her increasing sense of insecurity under Direct Provision in Ireland.4 Daniel Miller, in his seminal work on material culture, has highlighted the active agency of objects in our human processes of self-creation: far from being passive, material objects partake in the creation and re-creation of our individual and group identities.5 In Okorie's story, the George is an active agent in the creation of a traditional Igbo female identity. Jumi clearly values it as a memento of her mother and of the matrilineal channels of care that were disrupted at her mother's death. However, this signification has been made possible only by disavowing its connections to the slave trade. Here, the George acquires the status of a "commodity fetish" in the Marxian sense.6 It becomes a symbol of traditional Igbo femininity precisely by being stripped of its capitalist, colonial conditions of production. The disconnection between the factual past of the George, as a British colonial element, and its matrilineal transmission, as a symbol of traditional Igbo womanliness, can be explained through a process of adaptation, specifically, as argued by Aleida Assmann, a transformation of history into memory.7 Assmann notes two important dimensions of individual and collective memory: "interaction with other individuals and interaction with external signs and symbols."8 Hence, through the protagonist's interaction with her female elders, as well as [End Page 41] with the George itself, its colonial history is transformed, adapted in some ways, into a memory of female tradition. Furthermore, Jan Assmann points out the connection between collective memory and cultural identity, which strengthens the importance of the...

Direct Provision in a Time of Pandemic

Direct Provision in a Time of Pandemic Patricia Brazil Introduction Direct provision was introduced in April 2000 as a system for meeting the basic welfare needs of asylum seekers by providing full bed and board in designated accommodation units and a weekly financial payment of €19.10 per adult and €9.60 per child. While it was not mandatory to live in direct provision, under the Refugee Act 1996 asylum seekers were prohibited by law from working while their applications were being processed. This meant that many had little choice but to live in the direct provision system, unless they had significant funds available to cover their accommodation and living expenses for the often lengthy duration of their asylum applications. From the time of its introduction, the system of direct provision was the subject of criticism across a range of areas. There were concerns about the living conditions in some direct provisions, including lack of privacy, overcrowding in some shared rooms, food quality, social isolation, and lack of access to services. Other issues included the length of time spent by some people living in direct provision and the impact of extended stays on people’s mental and physical health. Particular concerns were expressed about the impact on children of living long-term in direct provision. The McMahon Report in 20151 made a number of recommendations for reform of the direct provision system including in relation to living conditions in designated centres, improvements in supports available for protection applicants, and speeding up the determination process. Two high-profile court cases also impacted on the direct provision system: the High Court decision in CA v Minister for Justice2 led to the introduction of an independent complaints mechanism for persons living in direct provision, while the decision of the Supreme Court in NHV v Minister for Justice3 struck down the absolute prohibition on the right to work for asylum seekers. The Supreme Court decision in NHV ultimately led to Ireland’s decision to opt into the Recast Reception Conditions Directive, which sets out minimum standards for the reception of applicants for international protection. Despite some improvements to the direct provision system as a result Studies • volume 110 • number 440 407 of these developments, many criticisms remained. The weekly financial payment to those living in direct provision was not increased at all between 2000 and 2017, which meant that the value of the already minimal payment had actually decreased when inflation was taken into account. A report by NASC in 20174 highlighted that not all of the McMahon recommendations were implemented, including measures to address the backlog in processing protection applications and improvements in physical conditions in some direct provision centres. The Ombudsman’s Annual Report for 20195 noted a number of complaints related to the use of emergency accommodation as part of the direct provision system, sometimes in remote locations with limited access to services and supports. Direct provision and the pandemic As of March 2020, there were approximately 7400 people living in direct provision and emergency accommodation in Ireland. Concerns were quickly expressed about the impact of the pandemic on those living in direct provision, including the ability to maintain social distancing guidelines in light of the sometimes overcrowded living conditions. Direct provision was described by one infectious disease specialist as a powder keg for COVID-19, with calls from NGOs, including the Irish Refugee Council, to move people in at-risk categories to alternative locations in order to enable self-isolation and cocooning. The HSE extended access to temporary accommodation for healthcare workers living in direct provision, and the Department of Justice introduced a number of measures in light of the pandemic, including off-site self-isolation facilities. Nevertheless, MASI (Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland) issued a statement criticising the department’s response on the basis that the measures did not adequately address the situation of asylum seekers having difficulty observing social distancing. These concerns were brought into sharp relief when it emerged in April 2020 that a number of residents at the Skellig Star Hotel in Cahersiveen, a recently opened direct provision facility, had tested positive for COVID-19. There were reports that residents at the Skellig Star were...

State Formation, Habitus, and National Character: Elias, Bourdieu, Polanyi, and Gellner and the Case of Asylum Seekers in Ireland

State Formation, Habitus, and National Character: Elias, Bourdieu, Polanyi, and Gellner and the Case of Asylum Seekers in Ireland

The meaning(s) of practice: Puzzling through performative language practice with refugee learners

This article features an investigation into the semantics of the term ‘practice’ coexisting in a multidisciplinary research context. The background of the discussion is a government-funded study with refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland, where process drama, music and dance were used to facilitate second language learning – an approach known as performative language pedagogy. The research is framed by exploratory practice, a methodology that considers ‘practice-as-research’ and ‘understanding-for-practice’ in second language education. An investigation of the meaning(s) of the term ‘practice’ was imperative as a semantic gap existed between the use of the term ‘practice’ in exploratory practice (the research methodology underpinning the study) and the concept of ‘practice’ in performative language pedagogy (the teaching approach used in the study). This article presents findings from twelve qualitative interviews with teacher/artists and practitioners that point towards a shared understanding of practice when working with refugees in language education settings.

Augmenting social welfare for asylum seekers in Ireland

ABSTRACT Lessening perceived pull factors and preventing alleged abuse of welfare systems is proffered as the key rationale for significantly limited weekly social welfare payments for persons claiming asylum. Despite these narratives continuing to dominate parliamentary, Government, judicial and public thinking for almost two decades, between 2016 and 2019, weekly payments to asylum seekers in Ireland doubled, albeit starting from an extraordinarily low level. This article presents the first comprehensive description, analysis and critique of how and why this doubling of weekly social welfare payments for asylum seekers occurred. Framed within the context of a Government sponsored reform initiative, the reasons for weekly payment increases to asylum seekers is multifaceted. Rather than being able to trace policy proposals through publicly accessible information, extensive reliance was made on obtaining documentation through the Freedom of Information Act. The interactions of political expediency, legislative reform, and implementing reform proposals, all contributed to further protection of social welfare rights for asylum seekers in Ireland. Nevertheless, these advances must be viewed in light of continuing rejection of equal applicability of social assistance law to persons seeking asylum.

COVID 19: Bioethics, the racial line and ethical praxis

This article reflects upon the limits and potential of bioethics in a society in which not only people's values are hierarchised along racial lines, but the public and private interests are also structurally antagonised. The author focused on the experience of migrants and asylum seekers in Ireland during the COVID 19 Pandemic. Developing a literature review on bioethics and race, the author locates this case study within the liberal rationality, which is individualist and ultimately values people according to the market needs. Applying the concept of racial capitalism to make sense of racialisation processes, the author claims the need to build ethics that is also practice, what she calls, ethical praxis.

Regimes of voice and visibility in the refugeescape

AbstractThis paper proposesrefugeescapesas a framework for expanding the focus of semiotic landscape studies by centering migration, inequality, and social exclusion. In so doing, the article adds to the work ofMpendukana and Stroud (2018)andKerfoot and Hytlenstam (2017)in uncovering how place is structured by issues of affect, voice, and visibility. In my paper, I turn to a case study of the spatializing practices of refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland, and the ways they counteract the mainstream semiotic mediation of their experiences. In particular, I focus on the semiotic landscapes oftransgressive intentwhere asylum seekers address mistreatment in their host country. By examining material produced by refugees and asylum seekers themselves, my paper demonstrates how enclosed spaces are a methodological venue for the field, while arguing also for a more thorough engagement with the theory and politics of visibility/voice.

Submission to the Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality on Direct Provision and Human Rights

This paper sets out recommendations to the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) Committee on Justice and Equality relating to their exploration of the system of direct provision for asylum seekers in Ireland.

The Challenges of the Right to Work and their effect on Residents in Direct Provision

In this essay MASI (The Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland) highlights the reasons why it is still necessary to continue with the ‘right to work’ campaign as the majority of international applicants, who are excluded from the directive, are left in limbo with no hope for their future while they wait for the outcome of their applications.

Migration Nation: Barriers to integration for asylum-seekers in Ireland

Issues relating to the welfare of asylum-seekers are relatively recent in the Irish context. This is largely due to the historically low numbers of people seeking refuge in Ireland for a variety of geographical and administrative reasons. This piece focuses on one such administrative issue, the continued struggle at national level to design and implement a fair and transparent policy to process and accommodate asylum-seekers. Specifically, this piece looks at the integration strategies of two local authorities to investigate whether the initiatives outlined within these strategies sufficiently address the needs of those within the asylum system. The initiatives were implemented in accordance with a national statement outlining the need for integration strategies for migrants into Ireland. The piece offers a qualitative analysis of two integration strategies in Clare and Limerick with the purpose of ascertaining whether these initiatives sufficiently address the needs of those within the asylum system.

Steven Loyal and Stephen Quilley, State Power and Asylum Seekers in Ireland: An Historically Grounded Examination of Contemporary Trends

Steven Loyal and Stephen Quilley, <i>State Power and Asylum Seekers in Ireland: An Historically Grounded Examination of Contemporary Trends</i>

Pregnant with risk: biopolitics, neoliberalism and the 2004 Irish Citizenship Referendum

ABSTRACTThis article augments and elaborates on existing research conducted on the 2004 Irish Citizenship Referendum by outlining the role played by neoliberal rationalities in shaping discourses crucial to initiating the Referendum and securing a yes vote. The article employs Michel Foucault’s theory of biopolitics alongside various media sources and existing research in order to outline and analyse how the figure of the asylum seeker came to be constructed and understood as unpredictable, un-securable and as such incompatible with dominant neoliberal conceptions of prosperity. In making its case, the article draws upon discourses articulated by key public and political figures to highlight how asylum seekers in Ireland were constructed as a drain on resources and a risk to prosperity in order to legitimise their exclusion and reconstitute the Irish population.

Hoping for a better tomorrow: a qualitative study of stressors, informal social support and parental coping in a Direct Provision centre in the West of Ireland

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on informal social support and coping amongst parents living in a Direct Provision (DP) reception centre in the rural west of Ireland. Since 2000, asylum seekers in Ireland are subject to DP where the state provides accommodation and food to asylum seeking families, and a small supplementary allowance. Despite calls for its abandonment and that it constitutes ‘citizenship based discrimination’, DP features prominently in Irish policy on asylum seeking. Drawing on qualitative interview materials from an evaluation of childcare services in one asylum seeker reception centre, we argue that children living in DP are frequently exposed to risky behaviours, and that the DP system adversely affects children’s resilience, stifling their educational, emotional and social development. In Ireland, supports for families and children living in DP are relatively weak, and despite protests for enhancing asylum seekers’ rights in housing and employment, asylum seekers interviewed for this study feel abandoned by the state. Instead, they rely heavily on local services for emotional and financial supports to cope with living conditions in DP. The paper argues for a culturally responsive approach to policy-making that is grounded in human rights and family support which recognizes the importance of community services in providing emotional and practical supports to parents.

Ireland and its vulnerable “others”: the reception of asylum seekers in Ireland

In Ireland, the system of Direct Provision, where asylum seekers are dispersed around the country and housed in accommodation centres on a full-board basis, has been in existence since 2000. This article examines this policy and how it has evolved since its introduction. Using a rights-based approach, it describes the problems encountered by asylum seekers living in these centres, outlines the criticisms made by organisations, both Irish and international, and analyses how the State authorities respond to such criticisms. It argues that the government has been more preoccupied with reducing the perceived “pull factor” than with respecting its international human rights obligations.