Gombeens Among Migrants
As Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael leave working class migrants for dead, Ireland's elite migrants face no backlash as they cling onto the coattails of Martin and Harris.
It is assumed that there is, and that there ought to be, an unquestionable solidarity between all migrants in Ireland, no matter the other factors involved. This assumption hardens in times of tragedy, such as the wave of attacks on South Asians last year, or the back-to-back murders of Qayyum Balogun, Masoumeh Manojan, and Yves Sakila this spring.
When the lives of promising migrants like tech professional Yves, hotel worker Masoumeh, and gig promoter Qayyum are destroyed, migrant political leaders come out in droves to express their horror. Meath councillor Yemi Adenuga spoke at the recent public vigil for Yves Sakila. Last year, Tallaght’s father-and-son councillor duo Baby and Britto Pereppadan stood against the wave of assaults against Asians. The only sitting TD of migrant origin, Martin Daly, then recounted how his Indian mother would have been horrified at the state of Irish society today.
As comforting as these statements and speeches can be, there is little to no material improvement that comes along with them. If anything, life has only gotten worse, especially for the most powerless among us. Asylum seekers are increasingly at the mercy of State-backed slumlords who are turning IPAS centres into for-profit ghettoes, just as the new International Protection Act 2026 threatens their rights, health, and liberty. Low-wage workers at union-busting Covalen – many of whom are foreigners – have been made to withstand psychological torment, while care workers are having their strong relationships with their elderly patients jeopardised by a one-size-fits-all rule.
Such burdens are not shared evenly by the more privileged members of our migrant communities – not even the racism. When an asylum seeker sexually assaulted a girl, all the residents of Citywest IPAS centre were endangered by the riots that followed. When foreign business students repeatedly sexually assault lone women, however, no harm comes to suburbs like Adamstown, Sandyford, and Castletroy. When a racist decides to act on their hatred in their heart, they make their way to migrants in disadvantaged communities like Kilnamanagh, Finglas, and Drogheda.
With this asymmetry now in plain view, we have to ask: why are most migrant political leaders — media personality Adenuga, the ‘entrepreneurial’ Pereppadans, and doctor Daly included — still loyal to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the duopoly that has nurtured the polycrisis this nation now faces?
Are they ultimately loyal not to their constituencies, their ethnicities, or egalitarian principles, but to their own class?
