The anti-immigrant riots in Dublin in November 2023 sent a worrying message about xenophobia in countries where many expats live. The rise of far-right groups has been in the news for a while. Still, its escalation into riots on the streets and curfews sounds the alarm bell about just how dangerous this kind of political atmosphere can be for expats and international students, especially those from ethnic and religious minorities. Can these incidents even deter their plans to move abroad?
Xenophobia goes hand-in-hand with the rise of the far-right
Xenophobia is prejudice and hatred directed against foreigners. More often than not, it overlaps with racism, especially directed at non-white expats from the Global South who move to the Global North, and forms of religious discrimination such as Islamophobia and antisemitism. The last decade has seen the rise of far-right groups across many countries that have historically been major destinations for expats and international students: the US, the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, among others.
The rise of far-right groups in Ireland has been a surprise for many. As reported by The Guardian, it's because these groups are so new there. No far-right candidates were elected in the general elections of 2020; indeed, even the best-performing far-right candidates won a mere 2% of the votes in their regions. Poll data from these elections shows that immigration was a concern for only 1% of voters, which is much lower than in countries where xenophobia is a much more long-standing social problem. For instance, immigration was a top issue in the 2016 US elections that led Trump to the White House.
Because Ireland doesn't have a strong history of far-right politics, the riots that happened on November 23 shocked many. For context, after a woman and three children were stabbed outside a school, information that the stabber was an immigrant quickly circulated among members of the far-right. Within hours, far-right hooligans flooded the streets of central Dublin to loot businesses and vandalize public infrastructure. On their WhatsApp groups, they threatened to kill any foreigner they came across.
Even after the situation was brought back into control by the authorities, expats and international students reported still feeling fear and shock. The Irish Post reports that, since the riots, some expats in Dublin have been scared of leaving their houses for many days when it's not necessary or walking through the city center to return home after work.
Anti-immigrant riots can sometimes deter the plans of prospective expats and international students
It is still too early to see if the xenophobic riots in Dublin will impact the country's ability to attract international students and expat talent or if it will even make some expats already there decide to move to another destination.
However, similar trends in other countries reveal that far-right agitations can definitely impact the willingness of foreigners to move to a particular country. Other factors, notably economic opportunities, can, however, be more important to some prospective expats than the risk of facing xenophobia.
The Migration Data Brief for Germany published by the OECD in mid-2023 shows that, for most prospective expats to Germany, the biggest obstacle to immigration are the lack of a job offer in hand (55%), the lack of knowledge of where to look for a job (45%), insufficient financial means (40%), the lack of German language skills (38%), and long visa wait times (37%). Only a minority of less than 20% mentioned concerns about xenophobia and racism as a major obstacle.
It's to be noted that many of the prospective expats surveyed for the Migration Data Brief are people of color from the Global South, especially from India, Colombia and Turkey. This makes them more vulnerable to racism or even Islamophobia in Germany, yet this concern deters them less from expatriation than more material or financial worries. This is in a context where the far-right anti-immigration party AfD has been gaining ground in Germany, polling over 30% in some state elections.
In the US, the Trump years (2017-2021) clearly impacted the appeal of the country to international students. These years involved far-right demonstrations, such as the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in 2017, and unpredictable xenophobic laws, such as the infamous “Muslim ban,” a presidential executive order that temporarily revoked visas for expats and international students from a list of Muslim-majority countries. The atmosphere of fear and uncertainty contributed to a drop of nearly 14% in new international undergraduate student enrollments in 2017, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
It's important to see how quickly and efficiently the government of a country reacts to far-right riots. Prospective expats and international students can feel more welcome if they see that the authorities are not complacent about threats to their safety.
