The challenges posed by the rapidly-growing number of asylum-seekers are to be examined at an international colloquium in Dublin City University this evening.
Speakers include two of the youngest members of the US House of Representatives, Congressman Harold E. Ford jnr and Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy. The colloquium, "Multiculturalism and Racism: Comparing Issues in Ireland and the United States", is presented by the US embassy in co-operation with The Irish Times and DCU.
With a growing foreign-born population, including almost 5,000 asylum-seekers who have come here in the past two years, the Republic is rapidly becoming a more diverse society. But the achievement of a multicultural society is being hampered by infrastructural inadequacies and growing racism, according to groups working with minority communities.
The colloquium will look at how Ireland can learn from the American experience of racial integration and multiculturalism, both positive and negative.
The other speakers are Ms Iseult O'Malley, a barrister and former chairwoman of the Refugee Agency, and Mr Paul Cullen, development correspondent of The Irish Times. The event will be introduced by the US ambassador, Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith, and chaired by Ms Mary Holland, a columnist with The Irish Times.
After the speeches, an open forum will be held, in which politicians, students, aid workers and special interest groups working with refugees and travellers will participate.
Mr Kennedy, the 30-year-old son of Senator Ted Kennedy, was the youngest member serving in the US Congress when first elected in 1994 and is currently the second-youngest, after Mr Ford. While supporting some initiatives to end illegal immigration, he is strongly opposed to legislation which punishes legal immigrants who are permanent taxpaying residents.
Mr Ford is the first, and so far the only, African-American to succeed his father, also Harold E. Ford, in Congress. A lawyer from Memphis, Tennessee, he is a member of the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, which was charged with investigating abuses during the US presidential campaign in 1996.
Both American speakers are also expected to comment on the Northern Ireland agreement, in particular referring to its significance as viewed from the US.