Balanced Strategies.

You’d have to wonder why it takes a photo of a dead child for us to take an urgent situation seriously.  The focus and attention on the growing number of Syrian refugees is to be welcomed, although I am not sure the attention is going on the real issues here, which actually aren’t about where and how to house the migrants, but rather, how to stem the tide of displacement.  Finding unoccupied homes in every parish is a nice, cuddly kind of idea, but it is not sustainable and doesn’t reflect the likelihood that after Syria there will be another war, another country in shut down, another region in terrible and deadly difficulty.  Despite what Angela Merkel may think, we can’t take them all in.

 

The Pope’s suggestion that every parish house one refugee family is incredibly naïve.  Having previously worked in the immigration sector, I have some sense of the logistics involved in managing resettlement, but you don’t have to be an expert to understand that immigrants want to stay together. (Think Kilburn, Bradford, Queens).  A Syrian family in each community would leave people isolated and lonely.  But large groups of immigrants bring other challenges which go way beyond their housing needs.  (Incidentally, it’s interesting the religious orders haven’t been forthcoming in offering up their empty convents and no-longer functioning boarding schools.  Maybe they have other plans to appropriately utilise these numerous buildings, before they crumble away to irrelevance?).  Refugees will often speak no English, so how we will we support the children to participate in education? And where we will they attend school, particularly in those parts of the country where classrooms are already brimming over, and teachers currently struggle to ensure all children receive the attention they need.  And what about health and psychological needs?  These are likely to be complex, with malnutrition being just the starting point for those who have spent lengthy periods in refugee camps. And assuming we want these families to stay here, to integrate and make a contribution to their new home, how we will enable the adults to learn English? What training and work skills support will they need? And will these interventions in any way displace local services in addressing the demands of the indigenous population?  Will they take ‘our jobs’?  Have we sufficient public health nurses to absorb these additional young families?   How will GPs and other professionals cope with the new client group and their likely multiple needs?

For sure, there is a contingency out there which is muttering about the absence of a Government response and adequate charitable heart, but which is also secretly praying that whatever decision is taken, it won’t impact on my community, my school, my back yard.    There are always those who will argue that we should look after our own before extending the hand of friendship to those far removed from our shores, but as my friend Marie Mulholland has already noted, these are often the people who have no intention (never mind track record) of helping others.  The sentiment is one to consider nevertheless.  Do we need to wait for a  photograph of a dead Irish homeless child to appear on our front pages before we realise that our housing situation really is a crisis requiring a multi-agency and inter departmental approach?  Unfortunately when it comes to children, we have a history of ignoring problems, hoping for the best, and wishing for a miracle until some horrendous story hits the media.  Then a committee is established, a report written, and a long list of recommendations made, some of which may even get discussed with the relevant stakeholders.  Our implementation deficit is however, legendary.

For me, dealing with the immediate problem is not the long term solution.  Finding ways to intervene in foreign war, in order to minimise the requirement for families to uproot and migrate, must take centre stage in the global response to the current tragic circumstances.   There are no easy solutions, and it can never be about one or the other – Irish or immigrant?  Homeless or refugee?  Long term versus crisis management?  As is so often the way, a balanced approach is what is required: one which includes short, medium and long term targets; guidance from the right experts whilst also listening to those experiencing the difficulty; what Senator Katherine Zappone calls ‘the science and the spirit’ or the heart and the head.  We tend to take one dimensional plans, and of course to limit our vision to those achievements which will be evidenced within the life time of any given Government.  That’s not strategic or effective. And whilst it may do something for those in need today, its unlikely to be of any benefit to those whose problems will only begin to emerge tomorrow.