Ongoing Crisis Involving migrants have introduced an obscure lexicon about asylum seekers into political debates in Ireland.
Terms like “human trafficking”, “economic migrants”, “illegal immigration” and “refugee” are sometimes used to specify the legalities of people coming into Ireland.
However, these terms are also frequently misused by anti-immigrant groups to conflate those seeking protection with those who travel to Ireland for job opportunities.
The Journal has increasingly seen such terms used interchangeably online, including in misinformation about refugees, or at protests against new arrivals being housed in certain areas.
But digging into the meaning behind such terms shows that there are specific distinctions between those entering the country.
The conflation of these terms by anti-immigrant groups can often make them seem the same, and the thrust of arguments by those groups sound more convincing to those who can’t distinguish between them.
The Journal’s FactCheck team regularly comes across nonsense claims online that use these terms: for example, posts that that refugees are economic migrants, or that asylum-seekers in State housing are unvetted and don’t receive background checks.
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Very useful check list which introduces more light than heat into the immigration debate and a good stand alone resource for migrant advocacy organisations.
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