Irish are racists?

Hobbes

I come back and more and more people I talk to tend to be pretty racist about all the Asian/African people that are here. Doesn't bother me in the slightest (in fact I think we should have more Kogals on our streets! )

Newspapers included. It's like Irish crime (which was pretty high when I left) has magically disappeared and turned into "Forigener" crimes. wtf?

Heck even had an argument with a taxi driver yesterday about it.

He was going on about how they were coming over to breed so they could stay here because of some rule they are allow stay if thier child is born here. I mention that they still have to petition to get in and they can be rejected. He says "yea but they only get rejected if they are criminals" so I said if they aren't criminals then they should be allowed look for a better life? At which point the conversation degraded into how all blacks are lazy criminals and shouldn't be allowed out of thier own country. :rolleyes:

pretty sad.

Or another one telling me that Nigerians are ruining the taxi service because they don't know where to go. Well duh, they haven't lived here long enough but doesn't mean they can't learn.

Clintons Cat

Newspapers included. It's like Irish crime (which was pretty high when I left) has magically disappeared and turned into "Forigener" crimes. wtf?

with regards to Press Reporting>was the same thing in the UK before the whole Afganistan thing kicked off.

The Daily Mail ran A full page piece on a single Roma Woman Begger arrested for begging on the tube who was claiming benifits.
This kind of story wouldnt warrent a column in the local weekly press court report roundup.But to give a story of this scale a National Profile hieghtens the sense of Urgency that something must be Done about the "problem".

Its all a matter of Emphasis.

Yurmasyurda

A huge majority of Irish people are racist/stereotypical/homophobic and if you ask them why they can't give you a reason :rolleyes:

People should be more open minded.

Boston

I find this all very funny, you say you don't care if they live here, and you would welcome more, but would you welcome them into your street or your home.

Ireland is a place of extremes, there was at one stage the impression that all refuges were saints, and could do no wrong, now its the other extreme and all refuges are criminal.
there humans, some will be the nicest people you will ever meet, and some will be total scum, and there's no point in pretending that's not the case.

And the refuge system is a bite ****ed up, once they have a child they can stay. often its take so long for their cases to be heard upon arrival that they can easily get pregnant and have a child here.

and I have the say comments like those in this tread don't help.
Just because someone has a view point different then yours on refuges doesn't may them a racist, and calling anybody that doesn't think we should open the flood gates to this country a racist has, among other things lead to the current climate of misunderstanding and mistrust

Hobbes

I find this all very funny, you say you don't care if they live here, and you would welcome more, but would you welcome them into your street or your home.

Never said anything about welcome more, I have no problem the people coming to find a better life. Would I invite them into my street or home? Why not? If I answered no then I would be as racist as the people who seem to think that foriegner = criminal.

Just because someone has a view point different then yours on refuges doesn't may them a racist,

True but when peoples whole argument is that "they shouldn't be here" then yes it's being racist. What is wrong with people trying to find a better life for themselves?

I also don't recall saying anything about opening the floodgates either.

Clintons Cat

Words used to describe Asylum Seekers in Mainstream British Press and Political Debate.(non exhustive)

Flood,Tide Swamp.

Beseiged,Invasion,Army

Bogus,Illeagal.Fraudulent.

WhiteWashMan

whatever about the refugees, the irish are an incredibly racist bunch. also small minded and bigoted to boot.
and you dont have to have a different colour skin.

bonkey

Traditionally, Ireland has been considered non-racist? Why? Simple - there were almost no Irish here! Those who were were more looked on as a curiosity than anything else.

However, if you look at our attitudes towards the travelling community (or whatever euphemism you prefer) you can see our real stance on "outsiders". Sure - many of them have undesirable attributes, but we tar them all with the same brush.

Now that we are becoming more ethnically diverse, the true racism of the Irish mentality gets a chance to shine through.

I've talked to arabs who have emigrated here and heard about the abuse they suffer in their daily lives for being different. This was well before September, before anyone jumps on the events of 9/11/.

I have seen and heard the same type of general distrust and dislike levelelled at almost every foreigner who is not from a native English-speaking nation - including French, Spanish, Germans etc.

Bo§ton asked :

you say you don't care if they live here, and you would welcome more, but would you welcome them into your street or your home.

For a start, residents thinking they should be able to choose who gets to live near them is at the very least highly elitist, and more probably bordering on racist.

As to welcoming them into my home....I dont welcome strangers into my home no matter what nationality, including Irish. I do, however, befriend people regardless of their ethnicity or race. I befriend them based on who they are, not where they are from, what they believe in, etc.

I remember not too long ago a bunch of refugees campaigning outside the dole for the right to work. They were denied this right by our laws while having refugee status. At the same time as refusing them, the government was looking to "import" Norwegians, Swedish, Spanish and others into the nation to meet the labour demand. Furthermore, at the same time, the public were complaining about the cost of these refugees on our pocket (I'll get back to that) adn the fact that they werent pulling their weight.

Explain the rationale behind this to me, because it honestly look slike we only want to welcome those we invite...and the rest of the world can just shag off.

Ireland in general seems to have some notion that we can send our own abroad, and they should be welcomed wherever they go. This is evidenced by the huge emigration in the 30 years preceeding the 90s. We also constantly held out our begging bowl to the EU, looking for more and more because we were so poor.

Now that we have a reasonably prosperous economy, and others less well off come to us, what happens?

We complain about the cost. We complain about them coming here, and we treat them like third-class citizens.

Double-standards? Definitely.
Racist? Quite probably.

Sometimes I'm ashamed to be Irish...

jc

Boston

I agree with 99% of what you said bonkey
except for that I'm ashamed to be Irish... comment.

Irish people like to get a big brush and beat themselves with it all the time. I don't know why. it discusses me when I see an Irish person say that.

Now if as you do, keep using the word racist to describe every person who doesn't like any or all foreign people, then its going to loose all effect because basically were all racist then.

Now think about it, I say , Arab, Mexican, African and English, every one of you will have an image in you mind of what there like, no one is 100% open minded, its not human nature.

A group of black people move in next door to you, allot of people will say Jesus don't like the look of them, their trouble, but after few months they will probably except them. does this mean they all of a sudden stopped being racists?

Its important not to mix P.C. with racism.

and what exactly about black and Asian racism in Ireland, ive seen a few pubs and chipers around with no whites allowed signs up and the gardi aren't doing a thing. And then politions wonder why there's growing racism.

seamus

Thing is......Ireland for a long, long time, had little or no separate ethnics groups. And any group that wasn't white and christian had very few members. In most cases less than 1000. Then the refugees poured in very suddenly, and within 6 months we were seeing far more different cultures on our streets then ever before. Many people weren't ready for this, and even though I know I'm gonna be hung, most people who actually hate them, and believe they should be sent home, or that they are thieving scum, are people from low education backgrounds - working class. I'm not saying all working class people hate them, btw.

The first thing I heard from someone that was racist was, 'They're taking all our jobs, and the unemployed can't get work anywhere'. Did anyone notice that most of the refugees are taking the jobs in McDonalds, and similar low-skill jobs? Most of the unemployed people snub these jobs. Without refugees, we'd have to queue for hours to get our drinking food. And fair dues to them, a lot of these people work damn hard and get promoted quicker than some Irish people would.

The taxi thing though....it's a bit of a grey area.....Do you not have to do a test to get your taxi licence, which involves acurrately driving through the streets specified by a tester. I've gotten dirvers that haven't a clue how to get anywhere, can't speak much english, i.e. dont know what I'm saying to them, and 1 guy I got was smokin a big damn joint out of the window!! :eek:

Anyway IMHO, it's about time this country got a bit of multiculture in its blood, but it would be nice if the Goverment would fork out for some free english lessons for these people

Monkey

I hate people who start sentences with "I'm not racist but..."

bonkey

Originally posted by «Bo§ton»
I agree with 99% of what you said bonkey
except for that I'm ashamed to be Irish... comment.

Irish people like to get a big brush and beat themselves with it all the time. I don't know why. it discusses me when I see an Irish person say that.

Assuming you mean "disgusts" rather than "discusses", I take your point....maybe I worded it wrongly. Perhaps I should have said that its an often-ignored aspect of the Irish which disturbs me deeply

Now if as you do, keep using the word racist to describe every person who doesn't like any or all foreign people, then its going to loose all effect because basically were all racist then.

No, you misunderstand. I use it to mean people who have a dislike of foreigners simply because they are foreign. You are perfectly entitled to dislike someone for valid reasons, but distrusting all Romanian refugees (for example) because some of them are bad eggs is racist. I mean, there are Irish scumbags aplenty, but we dont go around hating all our fellow Irish as a result.

Its this double-standard which makes me use the term racist.

A group of black people move in next door to you, allot of people will say Jesus don't like the look of them, their trouble, but after few months they will probably except them. does this mean they all of a sudden stopped being racists?

That depends on how they react when another group of blacks move in next door, or arabs, or any other nationality.

Fear of the unknown (in this case, people of a different nation) is understandable...like you said, its partly human nature. However, if after knowing one group, you decide that "all blacks except my neighbours are dodgy" or "blacks are fine, but arabs are dodgy" then you are still a racist.

and what exactly about black and Asian racism in Ireland, ive seen a few pubs and chipers around with no whites allowed signs up and the gardi aren't doing a thing. And then politions wonder why there's growing racism.

Fair point. It cuts both ways, but I was addressing the initial question about whether or not the Irish are racist.

The issue of "no whites allowed" can only be dealt with in the case of a complaint, AFAIK, and you must ask whether or not complaints are being made to the authorities. For years, many pubs have had a policy of "no travellers" and there is very little done about it. Why is this suddenly any different?

I do take your point though. If these people are deliberately alienating themselves from the country they are in, then they are at least partly at fault as long as they are not doing it because they were first alienated by us.

jc

Typedef

Interestingly enough, I live just a few hundred meters from "Little Africa" in North Dublin. Yet I hear lots of talk of how the blacks are wrecking the area but all I can find evidence of is lots of businesses opened up by emigrants especially around North Great George's Street.

In fact before the Asians, Africans and East Europeans arrived there seemed to have been more derilct shops delapidation and lack of people, new people add vibrancy to the area, bring business and money to the area. In fact the kind of people who are bold enough to leave their own countries to make a better life somewhere else, have to be desireable, surely this is the kind of entreprenureal attitude we want to encourage within our "Tiger economy"?

Yes Irish people are racists, big time, and the funny thing is they can whinge on about the English and how terrible they are, withholding movement on key matters of equality in the six counties, while at the same time these same people seek to deride non-Irish born emigrants/new citizens. Maybe I'me being fundamentalist, but either you support equality for emigrants as you would Northern Irish or you don't support equal rights, and I find difficulty with the concept that people can deride the British for segregating the Irish on the basis of race , while at the same time deride emigrants on the basis of being emigrants.

Around the area there are posters from the "Irish peoples party", droning on about letting 400 million emigrants into Ireland.

Somehow the parallel between our own experience with the English Imperial machine and our own racist, quasi-apartheid attitudes to "non-Irish" people escapes the vast majority of people who you will meet and talk to. Is this stupidity on their part or is it a genuine disability to put themselves in someone else's shoes long enough to realise they should have better things to do with their time then criticize emigrants for being emigrants. The Irish it seems are quite able to be emigrants but, are not disposed or inclined to receive emigrants in kind, which considering the amount of people in the US who claim to be of Irish descent, is kind of a sad reflection on how little 800 years of English misrule and en-masse emigration has actually taught us as a nation.

IMHO.

Boston

seamus if they are of school going age they will get free English lessons and quiet often its one to one.

I will have to disagree with you about racist being from poor backgrounds, often the refuges are dumped into settled corpo estates were people are generally poorer. these place get an unfair share of refuges and as such there is usually a backlash. I don't see very many of them living in clontarf.

that is the only reason why you generally will see racism in the working class. I know someone, he's a little dip**** I hate his ****ing guts, and he's a total racist, now I don't mean the P.C. type racist, I mean the racist that thinks all blacks are a sub human race not fit to share the planet let alone this country with him, and he get very good grades and he comes from an extremely well off family.

Boston

Originally posted by bonkey
The issue of "no whites allowed" can only be dealt with in the case of a complaint, AFAIK, and you must ask whether or not complaints are being made to the authorities. For years, many pubs have had a policy of "no travellers" and there is very little done about it. Why is this suddenly any different?

I do take your point though. If these people are deliberately alienating themselves from the country they are in, then they are at least partly at fault as long as they are not doing it because they were first alienated by us.

jc

well that was made illegal last year to ban travellers, the thing is whats a traveller, i mean is it someone that smells bad? someone thats stars a fight?

Typedef, im in dublin for afew years now, and thats place is called the hood by most.

Typedef most of you arguments reflect on me, in that I know what its like to be on the receiving end of racism, if you can call it that, from English, ive had friends and family dragged out of there car and a gun put to there head by the British army in the north.
I don't think the same people who have been on the receiving end would also give it out

seamus

Totally agree «Bo§ton», and I know plenty of ruggerbuggers in UCD, who live in Blackrock, and who think that anyone who is not white or almost exactly the same as they are, is scum of the earth and has some sort of brain defiency. Ironic really lol .

Granted, corpo estates get a large share of refugees, but they are treated the same as anyone on the housing list, which is why corpo estates would also get more than their fair share of unemployed people (****e, I'm trying to phrase this nicely but it's coming out all wrong ) I'm not entirely sure how corpo housing works, but I'm sure that if the Government started renting out houses in some rich estate in Clontarf for very low rent, and then offered it for sale to them at half its actual price, there would be serious uproar, and rightly so. I'm all for socialism, in theory, but find some harsh double standards in its ethos. (Please don't start with the socialism in this thread, take it to a new one if you want to comment on that )

Shinji

Like anything, it's all a case of extremes, and the reality of the situation lies in the middle.

The basic problem is that the legitimate political refugees get tarred with the same brush as the large number of idle chancers who also end up on Irish shores. Certainly, there are a number of people who come to Ireland because they are being persecuted in their own countries. Many of the Nigerian refugees are like that, for a start, and I believe that it is absolutely behoven upon the Irish people to welcome such political refugees and offer them, well, refuge.

They aren't the problem though, are they? It's not the people running from persecution and political or religious intolerance who present a problem to the average Irish person thinking about the situation at the end of the day.

No, the problem is caused by this new breed of so-called "economic refugees"; people who aren't running from persecution, but instead are running *to* percieved wealth. Some of them arrive with the idea that they'll find jobs easily in Ireland and be able to make a good living and settle down. More power to them. Unfortunately, a hell of a lot of them arrive with the idea that they'll sit on their backsides and be supported by the fabulously wealthy Irish state... And even those who actually intend to work are going about it the wrong way; they should be applying for immigration to Ireland to work, not for refugee status which frankly they do not deserve.

The bleeding hearts will tell you that all refugees are fleeing from Something Nasty and they all want to work their little hearts out for a living. The "taxi driver mentality" (not to pick on taxi drivers before someone jumps on me, but you know what I mean) is that they're all scrounging ba$tards. Neither side is right.

Yeah, Irish people can be racist - some of them just plain don't like black people or Asians, and that's just downright wrong and bigoted - but I don't think that covers all that many people. There are however people who think that refugees and travellers and so on are all scroungers and thieves; and frankly, while they're wrong to think that way, there's no smoke without fire and the bleeding heart politically correct side of the argument is every bit as wrong as the bigoted side of it.

It's sad to see multiculturalism in Ireland off to such a shaky start, but given the conditions, it's hard to see how it could have worked out any better, frankly.

Boston

well I wasn't really saying that the should necessarily be housed in clontarf, im just saying its easy to say you should be open minded and you should be welcoming these people, when they don't live anywhere near you.

But they shouldn't be just dumped into these place, sure you can treat everyone equal on paper but it real life that's not going to happen, 10 black families moving into an area will have a huge effect compared to 10 white families, and all im saying is take alittle more consideration, invest abig more money in facilities in the area, extract funding for schools and better policing. show people that refuges with lead to social improvements and people will be allot more willing to except them

Shinji wel said, you really need to get yourself a news letter

seamus

Originally posted by «Bo§ton»
well I wasn't really saying that the should necessarily be housed in clontarf, im just saying its easy to say you should be open minded and you should be welcoming these people, when they don't live anywhere near you.

But they shouldn't be just dumped into these place, sure you can treat everyone equal on paper but it real life that's not going to happen, 10 black families moving into an area will have a huge effect compared to 10 white families, and all im saying is take alittle more consideration, invest abig more money in facilities in the area, extract funding for schools and better policing. show people that refuges with lead to social improvements and people will be allot more willing to except them

Shinji wel said, you really need to get yourself a news letter

Totally agree
OK, its time for someone to come along and try blow us all out of the water, cos at the moment we're all just nodding and agreeing, which is a good thing but means a discussion can only go so far. Any takers? Certainly not me.:)

DadaKopf

Hello there all of you. I don't really like these kinds of threads because so many assumptions are made, more than most other kind of threads but one thing is blindingly obvious when it comes to the race question: bearing in mind that it is desirable for people to find the best way to live together, centering on the premises of egalitarianism and access, the only practical solution to racism is to encourage the mixing of cultures.

It's clear that cities are the most racially tolerant and politically liberal places on earth, by and large (no laws can ever be made in sociology). The reason for this is clear: communication and openness to difference and dynamic change breeds tolerance. Ireland has only begun to realise this, to be confronted with it, so there will be teething problems but it is the result of modern economics and transport methods that have contributed to this mass migration.

Should we have a problem with it? No, so long as our new visitors, and potential citizens, respect the law of the land. That said, the state's laws must evolve to reflect the kind of society we want in Ireland.

However, there's one thing I really stress, and something I'm worried about: our current influx of economic migrants and asylum seekers are being economically and socially isolated. They are forced to live further and further out of town, many are forced into low-paying jobs that do not fit their qualifications (those who have qualifications) and socially, they are beginning to ghettoise themselves for mutual security.

This tendancy is going to create minority cultures within Ireland and this is completely unproductive for the creation of an integrated and stable social fabric. If we're truly Irish people, we'll desire tolerance of immigrants and suppot their right to be different as much as it's their responsibility to understand they're moving into an already extant, mostly homogenous culture. Racism will only serve to make things worse for everyone; they're not going to stop coming in - sometimes I think the racism of some Irish people is simply due to the fact that we've all been bred to despise 'outsiders' - the Brits.

I can't speak for anyone living outside of my lifestyle, my class, my group of friends (which is thankfully diverse), this is just my opinion but I firmly believe it's time for things to change here.

Typedef

well I wasn't really saying that the should necessarily be housed in clontarf, im just saying its easy to say you should be open minded and you should be welcoming these people, when they don't live anywhere near you.

Egad no not clontarf, what could we possibly be thinking? The best place for them is their own mud-people countries or if they do manage to worm their way into our white utopia, they should be housed with the riff-raff in the hood, seeing as how all black people are lazy just like those dole drawing sub-humans that live there already, they should feel right at home.
They should all live in the one place anyway, in fact when they are confronted with the vast area of deprivation they live in they will realise that only the motivated people who live in clontarf should live in clontarf, everyone else should be happy with the "hood" and the scraps from bloated government coffers.
Oh by the way, George Bush called, he says there's gonna be a
Moslem lynching and he hopes you can join in. I told him you were out evicting farmers, so he said he would call back.. I did however give him a loan of your reusable KKK lawn crucfix, and a few virgins, he says he will only sacrifice three or the virgins to the god of white supremecy though so... you will probably want to send the misses round to pick up the rest, as soon as she is finished scrubbing your beer stains out of the living room rug with her toothbrush.

Oh and I almost forgot, Prince Philip says thanks for allowing him use of your attic for loyalist guns, he says when you arrive at heaven you will be the only Cathonlic let into his Protestant Utopia, while everyone else will have to burn in Hell. Don't fret though I hear Ian Paisley will be given special dispensation to enter heaven so you should feel right at home.

Real enlightened attitude boys.

QED.

seamus

I think you missed the point of my post typedef - I couldn't care where they live, so long as the Government are fair about it, i.e. I would hate to pay 400 grand for a house only to have somebody (white, black, asian, muslim, catholic, protestant, anybody) move in next door and pay 125 grand for the exact same house/land, because they can't afford a house and so the Government gave them a grant. This wouldn't happen, obviously, but that's all I meant. and what boston meant was that it's all well and good sitting in front of your computer in some suburb(don't take this literally, but you know what I mean ), when you don't have to deal with the people every day - anyone could actually turn out to be racist and not know it. Same as watching the telly and commenting on the afghan war when most of us don't know fully what's actually going on there.

Boston

seamus it clear he didnt read either of our post.

Typedef, your the only one saying that, ive all ready posted something thats totaly oposed to that.
see how easy it is to make allmost anybody and any comment on race out to be racist.

I wasnt saying that black people shouldnt live in clontarf(which you are making out as if i did) i was saying that the goverment shouldnt house ANYBODY in one of the most expensive parts of the country, if they want to live there let them get a job and buy a house there. It was in response to a comment raised by seamus

seamus

OK, just to redirect the conversation somewhere, and just say **** off seamus, if you don't want to, but something I was thinking of as I was getting my lunch(damn evening shifts). Let's say this white guy, let's call him Anto, has 2 friends(aww), both black. One is a nice guy, very genuine, generally doesn't cause hassle. The other(Roger) acts in a real stereotypical Black American 'homie' way. Always giving abuse, and beating the **** out of people. Anto hates him for being like this, ie for acting like a sterotypical Black American.

One night, because of this, Anto loses the rag and beats the **** out of Roger. Should he be tried for committing a 'racially motivated' crime? Or is it not the same as Anto beating up some little white scumbag who he also hates? It's just like the 'Hate crimes' episode of Southpark. Southpark rocks

Your opinions please

Ps: tis a totally hypothetical situation

Boston

and thats the reason i dont watch southpark.
we dont have a racial crimes bill so i dont know what would happen

Victor

Originally posted by «Bo§ton»
ive seen a few pubs and chipers around with no whites allowed signs up

Ok, I've been to a couple of places primarily occupied by non-Irish people, but have never seen this.

More likely is the situation of someone being told not to come back by the 'locals'.

As regards scroungers, most of the ones I've seen were Irish.

TwoShedsJackson

Originally posted by «Bo§ton»
ive seen a few pubs and chipers around with no whites allowed signs up and the gardi aren't doing a thing. And then politions wonder why there's growing racism.

Alright then, give us names and addresses for these pubs and chippers that don't let whites in and we'll go around and have a look.

What the fu<k are you talking about? If anyone put a sign like that up on their premises it'd be all over the papers the next day. If you're going to try to debate on racism, try not to lie while making your point.

DadaKopf

Look, the Equal Status Act 2000 prohibits any kind of refusal of service on discriminatory grounds of: age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, membership of the travelling community and physical/mental disability.

There is no law that allows this in public services (and private companies). If there ever was such a sign somewhere, it should have been reported to the police and the Equality Commission and put through the correct legal channels.

End of story.

bonkey

Originally posted by seamus
One night, because of this, Anto loses the rag and beats the **** out of Roger. Should he be tried for committing a 'racially motivated' crime?

Of course not. Race was not the issue. You can have a farmer's son from Kerry, as Irish as they get, acting like a "homie" as well. If you beat him up for acting like this is that racially motivated?

No.

Simply put, if Anto beats up Roger because of his colour and/or race, then its racially motivated. If Anto does it because of Roger's behaviour, its not. Of course, proving this in a court of law would be very tough.

Also - be careful - you say Roger acts like a "stereotypical Black American". Typcecasting based on race or colour? I dont think you're being racist, but I would suggest its a poor choice of words.

jc

Chucky

The term "Irish are racist" is too damn harsh for us! Racism is in every country. Im sure it exists on a much wider scale in america.
There definately are racists in this country. Ive seen it at first hand, but not everyone is so dont go brandishing this term around that "Irish are Racists".

swiss

Irish are racists?

Firstly, I have to say that the title of this thread is indeed a sweeping question. Of course in any culture you are going to find xenophobic sentiment. I don't feel that the Irish are, per se, racist as a whole. Much of the anti-refugee hysteria that has been built up here is as a result of the culture shock occasioned by the influx of different ethnic groups.

Frankly, I don't know many people from different cultures/races. I know a few French/German people in the college, and I know perhaps one or two black people a little. Even this limited interaction is more than what most people have experienced thus far in my locality.

Thus, the image we get about different culture groups is what we learn through the media. Unsurprisingly, most of the attention given towards such fringe groups in the media has been negative. The simple reason for this is that newspapers, television etc. tend to only report the negative aspects of world/national/local affairs. When did you last read a headline reporting the 'Refugee Crisis/Problem'? Not long ago, I'll wager.

I do think that it's a little unfair to make a direct comparison about our attitudes towards the refugees that are coming in and our attitudes towards the travelling community. Of course I can't speak for all travellers when I say this, but a lot of the negative sentiment directed towards them has some basis in the actions of a significant minority of their number. That is why pubs, hotels etc. unofficially discriminate against them.

What we should do is try to acquaint ourselves with the culture of our asylum seekers. Perhaps then, our attitudes towards them might have their basis in understanding, rather than mindless bigotry (as is undeniably the case with some people.