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EUROPE IS FACING one of the biggest migratory crises ever recorded. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, over 12 million Ukrainians have left their homes, fleeing to countries across Europe.
More than 50,000 of these refugees have arrived here in Ireland. The initial response to Ukrainian refugees arriving here was powerful to witness – communities across the country coming together to fundraise, as well as many people welcoming Ukrainians into their villages, towns and homes.
The Government’s response was swift, as it moved to open the country’s doors to the Ukrainian refugees – providing them with temporary protection status. This allows Ukrainian refugees to live and work in Ireland, initially for up to one year, as well as having access to social welfare, accommodation and other State supports including healthcare and education.
Two-tier?
While the Immigrant Council is fully supportive of the Government’s actions welcoming Ukrainians to Ireland, the reality of the situation is that we are now left with a two-tier asylum system for refugees.
Refugees coming from Ukraine have direct access to the right to work and study, facilitating their social integration within the community and personal empowerment, both of which are imperative to making a new start. However, non-Ukrainian refugees do not have access to the same benefits, and this is extremely problematic.
In addition to this, the Government’s recent decision to suspend visa-free travel for refugees from 20 ‘safe’ countries will have a huge impact not just on those seeking to travel to Ireland, but refugees in Ireland who need to travel abroad. This decision sets a concerning precedent which effectively establishes two different systems.
Recently, I was with a refugee from Syria, who asked me what the difference is between people from Ukraine and other refugees. She told me that she is happy to see the support for people fleeing the war in Ukraine, but she thinks that everyone should be treated equally. With a lot of sadness in her eyes, she shared the challenges of living in a hotel, and the long and challenging journey she underwent to get to Ireland.
Once here, she described how various policies make the adaptation process very complicated. She has relatives in Germany and has no idea when she will be able to see them. Being able to visit family and friends and have them visit Ireland is part of normal life, but not for her, not because she is an asylum seeker in Ireland, but because she is an asylum seeker from Syria.
Misguided protests
If we compare the welcome of Ukrainian refugees to the treatment of asylum seekers during the recent protests in East Wall and Fermoy, there can be no question about the difference in treatment.
Irish communities have a right to feel frustrated about the lack of local infrastructure but their frustrations should be directed towards Government which is failing our communities.
The Immigrant Council of Ireland supports policies of inclusion and wholeheartedly backs the Government’s actions to welcome refugees from Ukraine. However, extending these policies equally to all refugees is fundamental for a more equal society. While we are in crisis mode, the ability to strategise, plan and invest in the resolution of these intertwined and complex issues is lacking.
Working together
As part of its response to the emergence of the Ukrainian crisis, the Immigrant Council of Ireland organised a civil society emergency response forum. This forum, comprising 68 organisations throughout the state offering support to Ukrainian nationals, has sought to reflect the reality that the response to the Ukrainian situation and the response to international protection applicants, in general, are inseparable issues. One cannot be solved in isolation from the other.
As a forum, we have repeatedly called on the Government to appoint a national lead with the responsibility to oversee and drive cross-departmental activities in response to the current situation.
In addition, we have called for the implementation of the recommendations of the White Paper on Ending Direct Provision, the establishment of a refugee agency and the large-scale resourcing of integration measures at a local level, benefitting all who need it.
We do not doubt the commitment of Minister Roderic O’Gorman to these aims, but we do question the overall political prioritisation of this issue.
There is a risk that the current circumstances are seen as a short-term crisis we simply need to ‘ride out’ and get through. Such thinking is contrary to the reality of migration in a modern, globalised world. We cannot lurch from crisis to crisis. We must plan and invest in the legal and integration needs of all those who come to Ireland seeking sanctuary, and, more broadly, all those who choose Ireland as their new home.
Not only do we have a moral obligation to do so, we have a national obligation to do so because it benefits all of Irish society that we get this right. As a nation, we must practice equality and respect, and show solidarity and compassion for all who face challenges.
We cannot fall into the trap of polarising the discussion more, instead, we must together seek alternatives for a fairer society for all.
Fellipe Lopes is the Communications and Engagement Coordinator at the Immigrant Council of Ireland. He is also a Filmmaker, Photographer and Activist.
Articles like this the night before the exams don’t help!
@P Quinn: you think they are on the Journal? Xbox/Playstaion morelike!
@GerryCummins: the country must be full of psychology quacks of every shape, make and creed. You cannot read a publication of any type without coming across an article on stress or anxiety to the point where kids are now being brainwashed to believing that they are nothing unless they are affected in some way. Just leave them , each to their own ways.
Leaving cert is brilliant, keeps 60,000 teenagers off the streets for 12months and it keeps 25,000 otherwise unemployable teachers off the dole.
@Adolf Galland: Ouch that’s just mean. Great the hear you’ve such a high opinion of Ireland’s youth and the professionals educating them. As a special ed teacher how do you figure I’m otherwise unemployable?
@Adolf Galland: well educated thanks. I decided to be a teacher but am not otherwise unemployable
@Adolf Galland: I’m baffled it seems 70 people agreed with that comment as ridiculous as it is.
@Seaniecp: spend much time on here?
Id never go back to that stress again- rather my 9-5 job than sit the leaving cert. I still have the odd nightmare that I’m sitting in the exam hall, aged 45 and trying to remember how I ended up back in school and taking some obscure subject, that I haven’t a breeze about .
@Stoneybroke: me too and I’m a frickin teacher
Time to get rid of the leaving cert it’s to stressful for kids now a day. Every student should just be allowed to apply for what ever course they want to do in college with out the need for points.
@Humphrey Harold Haddington: Think of the failure rate in 1st year! One of the main reasons behind LC stress is that it is the first time any student does an exam which actually has consequences. What happens to a 6th class student who is only borderline literate? Nothing, they go to Secondary School. What happens to a student who fails JC Maths? Nothing, they go on to LC Maths.
@Humphrey Harold Haddington: and reap
@G Manning: apologies…and replace it with what? Not disagreeing but needs an alternative. Any kid can apply for any course, doesn’t mean they get it of course. Are u saying any student should get whatever they want regardless of ability?
@Humphrey Harold Haddington: ridiculous statement.
@G Manning: people should be allowed to become what ever they want to be, why do we put barriers in front of them. The cure to cancer may well be trapped inside the mind of a kid who didnt get six hundred points in their leaving cert but yet because of that they cannot study medicine.
@Humphrey Harold Haddington: so everyone should be doctors/architects etc etc? What happens when 95% + drop out cos they can’t cut it??? The only thing in the majority of people’s way is ability and application. Your position is just ridiculous, dangerous if it wasn’t too silly and amusingly uninformed. Any active involvement in education?
@Humphrey Harold Haddington: and then what? Just let everyone qualify in whatever they want to be without the need for college exams, which in my experience are 100 times more stressful? There has to be some system to differentiate between people, and the leaving cert is definitely one of the fairest ways out there
@COYBIG: hell of a lot more pressure in the leaving cert. Its end of the world stuff at sucj a young age. You can repeat college exams. That safety net is at the back of your mind when you’re wrecked after pullin all nighters and the end of year Ball is around the corner.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: absolutely true. Only country where you can fail one level and go on to the next. Like the Driving test. Teachers been battling this one for years. And kids are total snowflakes nowadays. Total meltdown when the phone is taken off them.
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: you can repeat the LC
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: from personal experience I’d disagree but I believe most people who do tough college courses will agree that college exams are a lot more stressful than the leaving cert
@mr magoo: you’ve to go through another year of hell to repeat though whereas you can repeat your college exams a couple of months later. I repeated and hated every minute of it as my friends text me to visit them. Got me to where I am now but fack doin that again.
@COYBIG: the subject matter may be more difficult depending on what you’re studying or indeed easier but the whole experience at that age is torture. At least in college you’re doing something that gives u direction and u have an interest in.
I am the parent of a Leaving Cert and a Junior Cert student starting tomorrow.
I am more stressed then they are, mostly to ensure they get to their schools on time!!!
I will be glad when it is over and we can finally have a holiday…since they have been working since January, especially pre’s, Leaving Cert orals, projects etc.
Really hope it goes well for everyone!!
@Seeking Truth: hope your and all other students take the exams as calmly as possible and achieve to their potential.
At least it’s not sunny ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Aaaa God love them. We all had the stress. Wait until they have to get a job and buy a house
@David Saunders:
True!
They have little to be stressed about compared to what will lie ahead.
Why don’t we close down social media for the Leaving Certificate, and while we are at it, the third level college exams
All this talk of stress is ridiculous, went for a walk or played sport would be much better than stuck on a smart phone, snow flakes the whole lot. Sure the LC has been dumbed down, you can’t even fail now
@Peter Byrne: agreed but no it hasn’t and yes you can
@Peter Byrne: you can’t really call them snowflakes when we’ve created the beast of social media and smartphones. They’re a product of their environment.
@Peter Byrne: you definitely can fail the leaving cert. most of us wouldn’t be able for higher level maths, for what I can see, I know I wouldn’t…
@Peter Byrne: and you sir are exactly what is wrong with the older generation in Ireland. It’s no wonder kids are killing themselves in droves with your attitude.
@Dermot Foley: sympathies to any family it affects but unless ur definition of droves differs from most that’s some mad exaggeration
@Dermot Foley: in droves? Exaggerate much?
@GerryCummins: a young lad in my club just killed himself. My partner had two girls in her school try to commit suicide in the one day last week. She’s seen a steady increase in kids self harming and attempting suicide. Compared to 20/30 years ago self harm and suicide is off the charts I would assume.
@G Manning: Actually you can’t fail your LC anymore. The concept of passing or failing your LC hasn’t existed in about 20 years. You just get a statement of your results, each subject graded O or H and 1 to 8. No pass or fail.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: semantics. You can fail individual subjects and passing less than 5 is seen as failing your LC
From an early age, kids should be taught how to deal with failure. Let them find out that people who fail at something are also learning something which will help them in their next effort. The idea that kids must be protected from anything approaching failure in case it upsets them is absolute nonsense.
The LC needs reform but awaiting a practical path to doing so. Think the increase in stress is more associated with the social media echo chamber and lack of coping skills than any increase in difficulty or importance.
Who benefits from this rubbish? Whereas all of the charities mentioned aboe are wonderful and do great work. I believe that we are seeing a huge rise in the number of people ‘suffering from stress’. What do you expect? Everywhere they look young people are been bombarded with stories about stress, mindfulness etc etc etc. A who industry has emerged that survives on the basis that we have all developed mental health issues that need their product. It’s normal to be stressed. It’s terrible for those with mental health issues that they are now lumped in with people about to sit an exam.
Social media being blamed again.
The entire population is probably more anxious but it is down to what we eat, drink & breath.
We cannot eat food adulterated with preservatives & flavour enhancers (that we didn’t evolve with) to not have concequences for our physical & mental health.
Ditto for fuel vapours, diesel exhaust & emissions from some plastics.
Our modern environment is causing inappropriate immune responses in many of us and triggering a sensation of anxiety that is being confused with an emotion.
@Chemical Brothers: If you believe that, you are beyond redemption.
@Yzo Sirrius: it’s fairly valid. The huge increase in Alzheimers and dementia and cancer is most likely environmental factors since we’ve moved away from working the land with our bare hands horses and eating our own produce.
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: no, much of the increase is due to more of us reaching old age. More of us are now getting to see old age probably because we aren’t burning out our bodies ‘working the land with our bare hands’.
@Chemical Brothers: This doesn’t explain why more kids are anxious today than those who went through the system in the 80s, 90s, 00s. Many of whom who were exposed to much more toxic chemicals.
@Chris Healy: that’s a contributing factor too no doubt. But tell that to the 36 Yr old woman with early onset dementia in my granny’s nursing home. Dementia has shown to be increasing dramatically the last decade and will hit epidemic proportions in 20 years.
Blame the parents.
@Andy Dwyer: stupid comment
@Andy Dwyer: i think that the era of social media and connected devices just gives more oxygen to the stress – there was never a time that people taking lc weren’t anxious – there was just no outlet to talk it up like nowadays- so maybe its the first reality check for 18 year olds that life’s journey needs a bit of effort – no harm – times are changing and no doubt some modernization will creep into lc in years ahead….ya can be sure every year the same ” oh the stress” story will be repeated regardless around this time…
@Dave Hammond: therein lies the problem-social media. Kids are more anxious with the constant accessibility to social media and the effort needed to keep up appearances. Kids can’t shut off as easy as older generations. Throw a high pressure situation on an image obsessed yet highly insecure teen and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
@Andy Dwyer: blame Donald trump everyone else does
Having flashbacks and nightmares decades later is the same thing that war veterans have from PTSD. Guys this isn’t normal. I don’t think people in other countries get PDST from their education system. We need to stop thinking this is normal.
There in for a big fright when they leave school then they will know stress
Young people are under huge stress than ever before .I was a school guidance counsellor in Dundalk for nearly 30 years.I have never seen our young people being under such stress and anxiety than I do at the present time .
Guidance counsellors play a key role in schools helping young people as a support.They play a vital role in looking after the mental well being of our young people.However in the budget of 2012 Ruairi Quinn nearly decimated the service with cuts .IThere have been small moves to row back on the cuts.But even still a second level school can not have a full time counsellor unless it has a minimum of 700 students.The cuts are still crippling the service.Shame on Ruaidi Quinn , Labour and Fine Gael for. what they did and on FF.fir not reversing the cuts completly as promised
@Gerry Malone: their actions have led to kids killing themselves. They have blood on their hands. My partners school has 1 guidance counsellor for 1300 children. She barely gets a break or lunch as they queue up outside her office in need of help. She’s only just after being given her full time dedicated position at that. Our education system is a joke.
I would dearly loved to have had Leaving cert Stress.
I had to wait until I was 24 to get the equivalent for which I paid my own tuition fees at night school.
i didn’t blame social media…..i said that it merely gives oxygen to the number of discussions about the ‘stress’ – we were eating mc donalds and driving diesel cars and in fact before the coal ban in dublin the air quality was actually far far worse than today….’inappropropriate immune responses’ me hole – such horse shit…..
Most over rated exam you will ever do. Unfortunately it’s not until a few yrs later that you realise how insignificant it is.
Pity offer no finincial support to leaving Cert students, they get no child benefit iif they turn 18 before or during leaving Cert year. It seems the government expect them to survive on nothing during such a difficult year. Regina Doherty and Katherine Zappone need to support the youth.
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