SOME ELECTION CANDIDATES have chosen to not canvass or put up posters ahead of this week’s local elections due to fears they or their children will be targeted amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment.
Teresa Buczkowska, Political Participation Coordinator with the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI), said several candidates have been threatened, harassed and verbally abused while out canvassing or putting up posters.
“Unfortunately, threats to family members are also something that we hear from people working with us,” Buczkowska told The Journal.
There has been an increase in anti-migrant sentiment since the riots in Dublin last November, Buczkowska noted.
Arson attacks on sites earmarked to house asylum seekers, and people filming themselves confronting non-white election candidates, have also become common in recent months.
These increased tensions have resulted in some candidates opting to not canvass or put up election posters in a bid to protect their families, Buczkowska explained.
“People are afraid that if their face has been identified, it’s not very difficult to find where they live or find out if they have children. They are afraid that the hate may reach their family members.
“Some of them decided against putting posters up in public out of fear for the safety of their children. They don’t feel as safe to be in public spaces or to show their faces, which is a huge barrier to democratic participation.”
Buczkowska said this clearly places “huge limitations” on how they run their election campaigns.
Out of that fear, some of them are afraid to canvass as well because they hear a lot of stories about about harassment and they see what’s happening in public.
Several candidates have had their posters damaged recently, as previously reported by The Journal, but Buczkowska said people from migrant backgrounds are more prone to be targeted.
“We hear a lot of examples of harassment, damage to posters. I know that a lot of candidates are reporting these issues – about posters being vandalised or stolen or damaged or destroyed – but migrant candidates experience that at a higher level,” she said.
More than 100 candidates from migrant backgrounds are running in this week’s local elections, marking a new record.
In recent weeks a number of videos posted online show people approaching non-white candidates and asking them why they are putting up posters or telling them to take them down.
To avoid the situation escalating, some candidates stopped putting up their posters and walked away.
“There is definitely higher levels of harassment than we’ve observed ever before,” Buczkowska said.
Amid the growing trend of people filming such interactions, Buczkowska said candidates who are harassed in this manner often just try to ignore it, but the situation can take a large toll.
“If that [footage] is put in the public domain, like on social media, this is having a huge impact on people’s mental health, wellbeing and also their sense of confidence.”
Some candidates are afraid to report harassment to gardaí as “they don’t want to rock the boat”, Buczkowska added.
They don’t want to be seen complaining because they don’t want to be seen as ungrateful because Ireland is offering a great opportunity for democratic inclusion.
“When migrant communities point out some challenges, quite often the response is, ‘If you don’t like it, you can move away from here’ or ‘You should be grateful for what you are getting, the opportunity you’re getting’.”
In recent months, the ICI has run workshops for election candidates from an immigrant background.
Part of this training covers how to respond if being harassed or filmed. In such scenarios, candidates are advised to “find a common value that you might share with that person”, Buczkowska said.
She added that facts and statistics will often “not change people’s minds”, but talking about values may help find common ground.
For example, if somebody says ‘Ireland is full and we should be housing our own first’, you could say, ‘Don’t you believe that everyone should deserve a house?’
“And then start a conversation with people where you talk about treating migrants with the same humanity as anyone else who is in need of accommodation.”
Buczkowska acknowledged that this approach will not always work and the candidate needs to “be conscious about safety issues and know when to walk away”.
She said candidates can usually tell quite quickly if a person wants to engage in a respectful conversation or not.
“Depending on what language they’re using, what words they’re using, and if they are actually giving you time to speak. If they are speaking over you, there’s no point in engaging because you’re not going to change anyone’s mind.”
Buczkowska said one candidate told the ICI that a group of people “spent more than an hour with cameras in his face”, but he remained calm, kept talking to them and “eventually they gave up”.
Buczkowska said misinformation related to the election has been spread online in recent months – such as posts telling migrants they don’t need to register to vote as they are automatically registered, and posts erroneously stating that migrants cannot vote.
As well as election candidates being targeted with insults and threats online, so are people like Buczkowska who inform migrants of their rights and encourage them to vote.
There is intimidation, especially on social media, threatening messages to migrants who are informing other migrants about voting.
“So, if other members of the community see that, obviously that is creating a sense of fear.
“If you are being attacked for purely informing your community members that they have voting rights, some people may actually be afraid to even consider voting because they don’t want to put attention on themselves.”
Buczkowska said she hopes that none of the threats materialise ahead of Friday’s elections, but she is concerned.
I don’t know what’s going to happen on the seventh of June. I actually feel that there might be some physical attempts of voter intimidation. We’ll see. Hopefully not, but right now everything is possible.
Buczkowska is a Polish–Irish community organiser who has lived in Ireland for almost 20 years. She believes some of the current anti-migrant rhetoric can be traced back to the riots in Dublin late last year.
“Following the Dublin riots in November, something really shifted in people’s sense of safety and sense of belonging,” she told us.
The riots happened after five people, including three young children, were stabbed in Dublin city centre on 23 November. A large volume of misinformation, and anti-immigrant sentiment, was shared online in the aftermath of the attack.
The man who was later charged in relation to the stabbings, Riad Bouchaker, is of Algerian descent but has lived in Ireland for around 20 years. He is currently awaiting trial at the Central Criminal Court.
Several people who intervened in the attack, as well as many of the medics who treated those injured, are immigrants who have moved to Ireland.
Caio Benicio, a Brazilian man who helped stop the attacker, is running in the local elections for Fianna Fáil.
In the immediate aftermath of the riots, many migrants were “reluctant to go to work or to go outside, obviously fearing for their safety”, Buczkowska told us.
Much of this anti-migrant sentiment was targeted towards non-white migrants, but other high-profile attacks on Eastern European migrants sent shockwaves through the community here.
Buczkowska said people like her can “blend into society… as long as we don’t open our mouths”.
In terms of the issues which are important to the migrant community ahead of Friday’s elections, Buczkowska said many of them overlap with the issues faced by people across Ireland.
“Migrants are members of Irish communities and they experience exactly the same challenges, like challenges with housing – and actually to a greater extent.
“If you look at statistics of homelessness, migrant communities are over-represented amongst homeless communities.”
For example, Barka, a Polish organisation which helps Eastern Europeans experiencing homelessness in Ireland, recently expanded their services from Dublin to Limerick and Cork due to the level of demand.
Migrant communities are experiencing exactly the same issues with access to healthcare and housing.
“But I think migrants also have additional needs that could be elevated by local councils. First of all, creating welcoming environments,” Buczkowska said.
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