Remarks by President McAleese at the Opening of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue
Remarks by President McAleese at the Opening of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue Mansion House, Dublin
A Chairde,
I am delighted to be here this morning to launch the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue in Ireland and I would like to thank Anastasia Crickley of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism for her kind invitation to perform this task.
The composition of Irish society has been utterly transformed in recent years, so that now something of the order of ten percent of our population is made up of people who were not born in Ireland. That this change has been effected so quickly is remarkable but that it has occurred at all is not. For the reversal of our traditional patterns of emigration to our present situation of net immigration is precisely the situation that has been experienced by affluent states for many years, and by our partners in the European Union, in recent times, in particular.
It is particularly fitting, therefore, that this initiative, though tailored to the Irish ‘market’, is in fact part of a programme which is being run throughout the European Union in an effort to inform citizens of the opportunities and benefits of cultural diversity and of diversity’s place at the core of the European value system, with a view to improving our societies’ abilities to deal in a healthy manner with today’s increasingly open and complex cultural landscape.
Our focus this year on cultural dialogue follows hot on the heels of the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All in Ireland, which I formally closed in December. Running through both events is the constant theme of diversity and the need to recognise and highlight its value. The past year of Equal Opportunities segues nicely into the present year of Intercultural Dialogue and I wish the NCCRI, as national coordinating body, every success in your endeavours today.
A recent Eurobarometer poll which spanned - as do all such polls - the 27 Member States, showed that Irish persons had the second highest level of recent contact with a person from a different country of all of the Member States of the EU. That is an extraordinary figure, behind which lies a very positive story. For it indicates one of the key facts behind the much reported 10% figure – that, not only is our immigrant population growing, immigrants to Ireland are relatively engaged with our native population in their daily business. It is, I hope, an early sign of the avoidance of ghetto culture by those who make their home here, of the Government’s success in its integration efforts, of the genuine welcome of our people and of the calibre and confidence of our new citizens.
We have always known that we have a unique opportunity to write a good story of emigration to Ireland and so this markedly fruitful contact environment provides us with a platform to deepen contact and interaction to push it into the realm of deep understanding and genuine, respectful friendship. The National Strategy for Ireland devised by the NCCRI, along with the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, is geared towards promoting this goal on an all-island basis and I particularly welcome its emphasis on the education of young people, for the attitudes they carry into adulthood will shape life for them and for all the people they live and work with, for better or for worse.
The reality is that the people of the world, and the Irish foremost among them, have always migrated in search of a better life. Migration into Ireland is part of who and what we now are, a permanent and necessary part of this successful, high-achieving Ireland, not just evidence of our success but a source of our continuing success. We will build tomorrow’s Ireland together whether we call ourselves Irish, British, Polish, Chinese, Latvian, Ukrainian, Ghanaian... A new generation will soon flourish which will perfectly, spontaneously describe itself as Polish/Irish, Nigerian/Irish and all the rest. They will draw easily from a variety of cultural wells and they will deepen and strengthen our heritage, their heritage.
I would encourage everyone, be they Irish national or newcomer, to engage actively with the intercultural dialogue process and to participate wholeheartedly in the sequence of events being organised, so as to ensure that the objectives of the Year will be realised to the fullest extent in this country. It is a chance for each of us to take the initiative, to have the courage to reach out to strangers, for the Irish to show our famous hospitality and the newcomers to show their interest in this, their new homeland, and between us to make our country a byword for harmony and mutual understanding.
As we work towards that integrated and inclusive society with its focus on newcomers and their cultures, it is important that we remember the unfinished work with regard to our Travellers. Their journey towards full social inclusion is getting much more traction these days thankfully and we hope for them that progress will continue.
It is my pleasure, therefore, formally to open the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue in Ireland. I congratulate NCCRI on its excellent work in preparing the ground with the National Strategy Framework and on its enthusiastic approach which has already translated into widespread commitment to achievement by key statutory, business and community stakeholders.