Archbishop Dermot Farrell. Photo: OSV News/courtesy John McElroy Archbishop Dermot Farrell has said there are “legitimate concerns” about the rate of population growth and the impact on housing and essential services, but warned that Ireland has also witnessed the “mobilisation of hatred and rejection” against migrants in its towns and cities.
Speaking during Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral, Dublin, for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Archbishop Farrell said immigration is “not without challenges and consequences that need to be addressed for the common good”.
“There are legitimate concerns at the rate of population growth and the impact on availability of housing and other essential services,” he said. “There is also a challenge to develop harmonious community relations and a necessary degree of social cohesion that does not seek to impose uniformity.”
However, the Archbishop said Ireland must create “an opportunity for encounter and mutual enrichment among peoples”, adding that it is appropriate to protect the integrity of the asylum system and regulate immigration “for the common good”.
“What distinguishes just and socially responsible approaches to immigration policy from those which are discriminatory and repressive is the recognition of the human dignity of the people involved, not to treat them as a statistic or a stigmatised category,” he said.
Archbishop Farrell said migrants are too often portrayed “even in public policy as a problem to be managed” rather than, as Pope Francis said, “a living image of the People of God on the move”.
He said many people arriving in Ireland had fled hardship, while others had been recruited because their labour was needed in the economy. “Our health and social services, our high-tech industries, our food production and processing, our hospitality and service industries, all depend to a very significant degree on the presence, talents and creativity of those who made their home here,” he said.
Reflecting on Ireland’s own history of emigration, Archbishop Farrell said: “For generations so many of our people depended on finding a safe haven overseas and an opportunity to build a new life.”
“How ironic, how shameful, if we create a society that denies the humanity of others who seek the same here,” he said.
Responding to the homily, Crosscare warned that recent Government measures risk sending “a troubling message” that migrants and refugees are “less welcome, less deserving of support, and increasingly viewed as a problem rather than as people”.