How do you address rising tensions over immigration when you have no control over it? Governments across the world may feel they all face that question to some extent, but politicians in Northern Ireland confront it to an almost total extent, as immigration is not devolved. The UK Home Office sets all the rules and administers all the systems for entering and staying in the country. Its officers, not the PSNI, secure the frontier and police immigration offences, such as illegal working. Its private contractors, not Stormont or councils, provide accommodation to asylum seekers.
More serious offences related to immigration, such as human trafficking, are the remit of the National Crime Agency, another UK-wide policing body.
Once asylum seekers are granted refugee status, they can access social security on the same terms as the rest of the population. Stormont has control over this in theory, as welfare is devolved. In practice, it can rarely afford to diverge from the system in the UK and would probably lose any legal challenge if it sought to treat refugees differently.
Stormont has repeatedly asked the UK government to give Northern Ireland its own quotas and salary thresholds for migrant worker visas, to attract people with the right skills. This has so far been declined.
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Following incidents of racist intimidation this week in North Belfast and Ballymena, leading figures in Alliance, Sinn Féin and the UUP have called for strong action from the police and the courts, with more resources where necessary.
This is under Stormont’s remit, although barely under its control, as the police, courts and prosecutors do not take political direction.
A stronger criminal justice system would also help tackle fear of migrant crime, which has reached dangerous and entirely unwarranted levels of hysteria. Demonstrating that the system can uphold the law would have the double benefit of frightening racists and debunking racist fears.
The DUP has condemned the latest incidents along with other parties. There was a separate and more general statement on Monday from one of its North Belfast assembly members, Phillip Brett.
“Those who came to Northern Ireland through the proper legal process are often the most appalled at those who try to break the rules they had to follow,” he said. “We must uphold fairness, protect our borders and ensure that those who invest in our country and respect our laws are never undermined by those who don’t.”
This was an attempt to acknowledge his constituents’ concerns, while appealing for tolerance. The DUP has invoked the “ordinary decent immigrant”.
A favourable distinction is also sometimes made in Northern Ireland towards refugees arriving under special programmes, such as the scheme for vulnerable Syrian families. The Home Office provides funding to Stormont and councils to help with resettlement and integration under these schemes.
The DUP controls the housing portfolio at Stormont and claims to be addressing related immigration concerns. Last month it met Mears, the Home Office’s asylum accommodation contractor, although the company would say little as it is answerable only to London. The DUP said it was “shocked by the lack of transparency”.
Mears is currently moving asylum seekers from hotels into rented housing, a policy known as dispersal. The DUP objects to both options, saying there have been problems around hotels and that dispersal is worsening the housing shortage. However, it has not explained where else asylum seekers should go. They will not be “dispersed” to another part of the UK, as the Home Office treats Northern Ireland as a self-contained territory for asylum claims and housing.
Councils are responsible for approving, licensing and regulating the multiple occupancy rental properties that Mears wants to sublet, and which are also often let out to migrant workers. A push is beginning in councils to tighten up these processes, mainly led by unionist parties, although they have faced little opposition. It amounts to an undeclared turf war, coyly framed as concerns about overcrowding, noise and parking. Nobody is fooled; it would be healthier to have everyone’s true concerns discussed openly.
Rumours abound that refugees and asylum seekers are exploiting loopholes to obtain benefits and social housing. The authorities issue curt denials, yet the loopholes do exist and it would be extraordinary if nobody was using them.
This appearance of official furtiveness fuels suspicions of widespread abuse and places every non-white and foreign resident at further risk of hostility. Benefits fall under the same DUP-run department as housing. The party could do more to bring relevant facts and figures to light.
Lack of control and lack of transparency is a toxic combination. When people feel powerless and kept in the dark, conditions are ripe for paranoia and agitation. Every party in Northern Ireland should aim for a more open and evidence-based discussion on immigration, not just because it would help, but because it is really all they can do.
