Policymakers are failing to collaborate with Dublin’s faith-based communities, who are uniquely placed to pick up on tensions, challenge misinformation and build trust around migrant integration, a new report has found.
The research, carried out earlier this year through interviews with members of 49 faith-based communities in Dublin’s northeast inner city, found these groups play a unique role as “mediators of integration”, addressing challenges such as language barriers and racism “that are often unmet” by the Government and Dublin City Council.
Dublin City Council has “preached about welcoming diversity but overlooked one of the major sources of diversity in our city”, notes the study, led by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice. Issues of faith and religion are notably absent from council and national policymaking decisions relating to migrant integration, it adds.
These groups are often the first port of call for newcomers to the city and offer “intrinsic trust” to migrant communities. They “shorten the distance between being an outsider and becoming a neighbour”. Strategising about the future without engaging with them “is to ignore one of the city’s most effective instruments for social cohesion”.
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Those interviewed for the report included members of the Roman Catholic, mainstream protestant, Pentecostal, Muslim, Orthodox, Salvationist and independent evangelical faiths.
The risk of crises such as the 2023 Dublin riots “will diminish if officials cultivate relationships with faith-based communities”, says the report. “The leaders will pick up on tensions earlier than those working in centralised offices. They can correct rumours and challenge misinformation. They can steer people towards calmer face-to-face responses.
“Pastoral care builds the trust needed for influence when things become tense.” However, without this support, “responses will continue to lag and fear can spread”.
Faith-based communities bridge cultural, linguistic and social gaps, and facilitate a smoother transition into Irish society for new arrivals, according to the study. Attending church and places of worship helps people deal with “loneliness, homesickness and even enables them to relate better to their Irish-born peers”.
“These people are not seeking to evangelise, they’re just looking to take care of their neighbours,” says Dr Kevin Hargaden, lead researcher on the study and social theologian at the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice. “The city council just never thinks to tap into this latest resource.”
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The November 2023 Dublin riots “exposed” the gap that exists between the authorities and faith-based communities that cancelled services in the days following the violence. “Gardaí seemed to lack a working map [of] where faith communities actually gathered”, so delivering support and reassurance to migrant communities who feared for their safety was difficult, it notes.
“Closer, ongoing engagement with faith-leaders” would have enabled gardaí to provide face-to-face reassurance “sooner and more effectively”.
The report found tensions are more likely to arise among people who have no religious practice than between communities of faith. Inter-faith co-operation in the northeast inner city has become normal, with many of these groups now sharing buildings as places of worship, it says. Their contribution to Irish society should be “recognised and integrated” into the city’s urban planning and community development efforts.
“If the State just says religion is in decline, you end up suffocating these communities,” Dr Hargaden told The Irish Times.
“We had repeated cases in interviews where members and leaders said the hostility they feel comes from people with no religious connection at all,” he said.
“If these communities go from being neglected to being ignored, that creates a new cycle of alienation. And if they turn away from society, then much more troubling dynamics can be set in motion.”
