How do the Irish feel about immigrants working and living in Ireland?
It depends who you ask – Irish people have many different views on it. Personally I think it’s largely a good thing – most of the immigrants into the country are working, paying taxes and helping to develop the economy. Most of them have integrated well into Irish life or are working hard and keeping to themselves. I think it’s a healthy thing to see the different nationalities make their impact through new shops, new influences in the workplace and new relationships forming: it means we are opening ourselves to the wider world, and hopefully benefitting from it. There have been very few social impacts or crime impacts: it seems the drug gangs (many of whom are indigenous Irish) pose a far bigger challenge to our society, and where there are drug dealers, there must be a huge (mainly indigenous Irish) market for it also. I think a lot of Irish have a worry about the tensions caused by a crash in the economy, if it were to happen, and the “ghettoisation” of certain groups and what probl
