Refugees and people who have been granted permission to remain in Ireland are more vulnerable to employment discrimination particularly because they do not have Irish names.
Josephine Ahern, the Director of the Refugee Information Service (RIS) who was responding to the recent study published by the Equality Authority and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRI), titled ‘Discrimination in Recruitment; Evidence from Field Experiment' also said the finding that people's names are affecting their chances of employment is very worrying, particularly in this period of economic downturn and when employers really need to tap into the best expertise available, regardless of whether a person has an Irish name or not.
‘It is shocking to find out that such high levels of discrimination are encountered by people with non-Irish names even when they too are Irish The Director cited an earlier report published by the RIS which examined Integration in Ireland. The project was funded by the Office of the Minister for Integration through Pobal Supporting Communities and it too found that a significant number of highly qualified refugees and people with other legal rights to remain here, are simply unable to access employment because of a lack of ‘Irish experience' and that this attitude continues to be so pervasive, despite international trends towards diverse workplaces and the globalisation of industry.
‘Our Government must show leadership in terms of this issue so that the xenophobia evident in some areas of the Irish labour market is stamped out, particularly because refugees too have families and children and it is important that they grow up in this society with a sense of being equal and a part of it and access to employment is critical in this regards' Ms Ahern said.
Ms Ahern congratulated the authors of this groundbreaking report and urged the Equality Authority and the ESRI to progress this work by encouraging employers and employees alike to familiarise themselves with employment and equality legislation to also help break down the barriers of discrimination.
Also commenting on the findings of the report, the Director of Integrating Ireland, Mr Aki Stavrou said with regard to immigrants, Ireland has not had a history of racism thus far. Mr Stavrou expressed concern about the findings and called on Government, employer bodies, trade unions and businesses in general to make an unequivocal statement that such racism will not be tolerated in Ireland.
‘This is nothing else but an institutional racism' Mr Stavrou said.