A POLL HAS indicated that most Irish people want the State to take in more Afghanistan refugees than the 230 the Government has committed to.

A majority of Irish people are also in favour of family reunification for Afghan people.

In August, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman said that 230 Afghan citizens have been issued with refugee status.

Amnesty Ireland, the Irish Refugee Council, and Sister Stanislaus Kennedy are among the advocates that have said this number is not enough, and have called for Ireland to take in at least 1,000 Afghan refugees.

A poll carried out by Ireland Thinks on behalf of The Journal indicates that a plurality of Irish people want to take in more than 230 Afghan refugees and up to 1,000 in total.

Choosing from a list of options, 34% want to take in between 230-1,000 Afghan refugees; 27% said 230 is about the right number; 19% said we should take over 1,000 and the same proportion of respondents said we should take less than 230 or zero (8%).

Just 5% of respondents said they didn’t know.

A closer look at demographics

These numbers mostly corresponded across genders: the exception was that a higher proportion of men said that Ireland should take in zero Afghan refugees (12% of men vs 4% of women), and more women said that 230 was about the right number (32% of women vs 21% of men).

The poll also shows that a high proportion of young people think we should taken in more than 230 Afghan refugees: 76% of 18- to 24-year-olds think we should take in more than 230 Afghan refugees, while 68% of the 25-34 age group believe the same.

In those aged 65 and over, a plurality said that 230 is about the right number (33%) and 31% said that between 230-1,000 Afghan refugees should be taken in. In total, 45% of that age cohort said more than 230 Afghan refugees should be taken in.

On education, a high proportion of those with a third-level degree believe that more than 230 Afghan refugees should be taken in (40% say up to 1,000, 22% say over 1,000).

This compares to 24% and 13% respectively of those with less than a Leaving Cert-level education.

Those with a Leaving Cert-level education had the highest proportion of respondents saying that no Afghan refugees should be taken in by Ireland (12%), and the highest proportion of people saying that some but less than 230 should be taken in (10%).

The more religious a respondent is, the less likely they are to support taking in more than 230 Afghan refugees, a broad analysis of the poll data indicates.

Based on political leanings, those supporting Solidarity-PBP (60%), the Labour Party (32%), and the Green Party (28%) had the highest proportion of supporters who wanted Ireland to take in over 1,000 Afghan refugees. 

Those supporting the Social Democrats (63%), the Green Party (58%), the Labour Party (49%), Fine Gael (44%) had the highest proportion of supporters who wanted Ireland to take in between 230 and 1,000 Afghan refugees.

Those who support Aontú (21%), Fianna Fáil (16%) and Sinn Féin (13%) had the highest number of respondents who said Ireland should take in no Afghan refugees, the poll indicates.

Other poll questions

Of the other questions asked, 62% said Ireland should open or expand its immigration programmes to allow Afghan people living here to bring family members to this country legally. 30% said Ireland shouldn’t, and 8% said they don’t know.

In response to the UK committing to resettle 20,000 refugees from Afghanistan in the next five years, and Germany warning against an EU target, 51% said the EU should not set a target for its member states.

33% said it should, and 15% said they didn’t know.

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The EU has pledged to give funding to Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries to help manage the refugee crisis following the Taliban takeover, instead of putting a set number of refugees for EU member states to take in.

The UK has pledged to take in 20,000 Afghan refugees as part of its Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme, but hasn’t mentioned over what timeframe. 20,000 Syrian refugees were resettled over a seven-year period from 2014.

This is separate to the relocations policy which aims to relocate 5,000 former Afghan staff members hired by the British government, and their families, to the UK by the end of the year.

When asked ‘Do you think the EU has handled immigration well in the past decade’, 60% of Irish respondents said it hadn’t, and 23% said yes.

One in seven would consider voting for an anti-immigration party, and one in four equate immigration control to holding a racist belief. 

88% of people support the belief that the State should provide language and cultural classes to new migrants and refugees to help with integration.

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has been asked if there are future plans to grant more Afghan citizens refugee status.

The poll was conducted on Saturday 18 September 2021.

The sample size of 1,000 consisted of responses of a listed of invited respondents of 5,000 panellists selected according to their gender, age, region, political interest, past voting behaviour, religious adherence and educational attainment.

The responses were also weighted according to these variables in line with the CSO and exit polls to ensure adequate representation.

This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work is the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.