Most migrants living in Tipperary experienced a welcome from locals, council survey finds

A survey of migrants conducted by Tipperary County Council found most respondents experienced a welcome from people in Tipperary and there was only minimal evidence of discrimination and racism.

Sixty-eight migrants took part in the survey conducted by the council as part of the process for devising its first ever three-year migrants strategy called Diverse Tipperary: An Integration Strategy 2023-2025, which was approved by county councillors at their May meeting.

Director of Services for Economic, Community & Rural Development Brian Beck told the meeting there were 15,900 migrants in county Tipperary in 2016 and he could safely say that number was now more than 17,000.

He noted this was the size of Clonmel’s population, which means migrants make up a “very important part” of this county.

The Council’s Community & Social Inclusion officer Margo Hayes, who presented the Strategy to the council meeting, outlined that non-Irish people make up about 9.8% of the county’s population.

They include Syrians, people in direct provision accommodation, economic migrants from Eastern Europe. India, Pakistan and the Middle East and most recently Ukrainians fleeing the war in their country.

Ms Hayes outlined that the survey the council conducted when devising the Strategy found most respondents experienced a welcome from people in Tipperary.

“There was some evidence of discrimination and racism but it was quite minimal.”

On the less positive side, the survey found “limited integration” of migrants into the local community. For example most Polish people were friends with other Polish people.

Migrants tend to mix with their own culture. It wasn’t until their children went to school and made local friends that real integration took place.

Most migrants tend to live in the county’s towns and villages rather than rural areas. Access to jobs and transport were factors in migrants being more likely to be urban living. Their experience of our health and education services are very positive but they had less positive experiences with employment and public transport.

Ms Hayes said the Migration Integration Strategy set out actions to improve integration of migrants.

She described how Tipperary ETB is doing “huge work” around the provision of English language courses but facing difficulties with finding tutors. The need for language courses came up in all the survey interviews.

Some actions outlined in the strategy are already taking place such as the hosting of Africa Day and International Yoga Day events and integration running groups. The council was also working to settle Ukrainians in the county.

The Strategy identifies gaps and barriers to integration and proposes some new actions to address them.

Ms Hayes outlined how the council is trying to hire staff from migrant communities. Recent local authority recruitment ads had been shared on Polish community Facebook pages, for example.

The council also had to make sure its information was translated in different languages and was giving diversity training to its staff. The Sports Partnership was also doing integration work such as running sports competitions for Syrian refugees.

The Strategy supports increasing the representation of migrants on bodies like the council’s Strategic Policy Committees and the Public Participation Network for community groups.

She pointed out that the council has ringfenced €10,000 to help marginalised communities like the Roma to integrate with the local community.

She urged councillors to represent the needs of the county’s migrant population.

“Just because you are not a migrant, doesn’t mean you don’t represent them,” she said.

Clonmel Cllr John Fitzgerald said the findings of the council’s survey were very interesting and it was very welcome that migrants are finding Tipperary a happy place to make their home.

He said migrants enrich our society and the diversity they brought into towns like Clonmel was really good.

Mayor of Clonmel Cllr Pat English described the Strategy as excellent.

He highlighted how migrants were needed in this country to fill jobs in health services like hospitals and nursing homes and councillors should support them.

Cllr English joined with Sinn Féin Cllr David Dunne in urging fellow councillors to stand up for migrants when they come under attack from a small minority on social media.