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‘Out of the mouths of babes and innocents’..... children’s attitudes towards travellers

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posted on 2012-10-24, 15:24 authored by Brendan O'Keeffe, Pat O'ConnorPat O'Connor
This chapter looks at children’s attitudes towards Travellers. It focuses on children in fourth class in primary school (i.e. aged 9-11 years) since it is at this stage that they are likely to be aware of socially and culturally constructed differences, and most likely to reflect parental and community attitudes towards such groups. Racist attitudes are increasingly topical since, although Ireland remains one of the more racially and ethnically homogeneous societies in Europe, this situation is changing rapidly. The arrival of refugees, asylum seekers, guest-workers and others in the mid-1990s has added in a new way to the ethnic diversity of a country where, in 1996, just under 7% of the population were born outside Ireland (CSO, 1998). However, despite newspaper headlines referring to an ‘influx’ of asylum seekers, according to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Ireland received just 25,000 refugees and asylum seekers in 1999: among the smallest numerically and per capita in the EU. The anecdotal evidence of many of these recent arrivals suggests that racist attitudes and behaviour are prevalent here. At an individual level many have experienced verbal and sometimes physical attacks; organised opposition to them has been mounted by some communities; while their treatment by the State has been severely criticised by senior legal figures.

History

Publication

Understanding Children: Changing Experiences and Family Forms, editors Cleary, Anne, Nic Giolla, Phádraig and Quin, Suzanne;2

Publisher

Oak Tree Press

Note

peer-reviewed

Language

English

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