Migrants' Experience Of Racism And Discrimination In Ireland: Survey Report

Migrants' Experience Of Racism And Discrimination In Ireland: Survey Report

By Frances McGinnity, Philip O'Connell, Emma Quinn and James Williams (ESRI)

Published by The Economic And Social Research Institute

Embargo: 00:01 am, Tuesday November 7, 2006

This study reports the results of a survey conducted in Summer 2005 to assess the prevalence and degree of discrimination reported by recent migrants. It is the first large-scale nationally representative study of immigrants' subjective experiences of racism and discrimination in Ireland. The survey measures perceived discrimination in a range of different situations - in the workplace, in public places, in shops/restaurants, in commercial transactions and in contact with institutions. The sample covers work permit holders and asylum seekers, two important groups of recent migrants to Ireland. All of the respondents were non-EU adult migrants, representing a broad range of nationalities from North and South/Central Africa, from Asia and from Eastern Europe.

Some of our key findings are:

· Harassment on the street, in other public places or on public transport was the most common form of discrimination in Ireland: 35% of the migrants' sample reported experiencing this.

· Among those entitled to work, insults or other forms of harassment at work was the second most common form of discrimination, with 32% of work permit holders having reported this.

· Black Africans experienced the most discrimination of all the groups studied. This is true of racism/discrimination in the work domain, in public places, in pubs/restaurants and in public institutions, even after accounting for other factors like education, age and length of stay.

· Non-EU East Europeans generally reported less discrimination than other national groups. This is particularly true of harassment in public places.

· Compared to other national groups, Asians reported the lowest incidence of di scrimination in their dealings with Irish institutions.

· Asylum seekers were much more likely to report discrimination than work permit holders. This is true for all the domains which are relevant to both groups: public places, shops restaurants and institutions, even after controlling for national/ethnic origin.

· The immigrants surveyed were most likely to socialise with people from their own country of origin, followed by Irish people: they were less likely to socialise with other ethnic or national groups.

This report was submitted to the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) in October 2005. Publication of the survey report postdates the release of the synthesis report Migrants' Experiences of Racism and Xenophobia in 12 EU Member States published by the EUMC in October 2006. In general, levels of reported racism in Ireland tend to be lower than in the other countries, particularly Southern European countries. While the reported incidence of racism and discrimination on the street/in public transport and harassment in the workplace are high in most countries, reports of bad treatment by the police and being denied access to housing is much less common among immigrants in Ireland than in most other countries.

For further information contact :

Philip O'Connell (Research Professor, ESRI) at 6307190 or
Fran McGinnity (Research Officer, ESRI) at 6307127 or
Emma Quinn (Research Analyst, ESRI) at 6307222.

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