Is there racial equality in the Irish workforce? Up to a point...

Ireland, for a long time, was a country that people left for better opportunities, often drawn by the shiny goal of “making it” elsewhere. But, for some time now, it has been a place people come to – be it for a better living situation, education or a job opportunity. With people from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and cultures now making up Ireland’s workforce, what sectors are leading in employing staff from a range of ethniies and which ones are lagging behind?

No access to data

According to the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR), Ireland has yet to standardise ethnic data collection practices and incorporate an ethnic identifier across all routine administrative systems. This, according to a report from the INAR on racial discrimination in Ireland, presents challenges for policymakers in assessing equality issues.

“Disaggregated data is needed on education, health and employment outcomes, as well as crime,” the report states. “The position of ethnic minority and migrant women must be understood particularly in respect of labour market participation, discrimination in healthcare and access to safety and services for victims of domestic violence. Gender and equality proofing should be built into policy processes from design stage.”

The good…

Dr Ebun Joseph, who is founder of the Institute of Antiracism and Black Studies and who established the first black studies module in UCD, says a number of sectors have excellent records in hiring people from a range of ethnic groups, such as the tech industry and healthcare.

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“Tech are really ahead – far, far ahead of everyone else,” says Joseph. “It’s not because they want to be ahead but because it’s a sector where you have to be good. If you’re good at IT, it trumps anything else.

“It’s one sector where a lot of people have been able to get in, not just at ground level but at senior management level. It recruits men and women, and across all ethnicities.”

Healthcare is also ahead of the curve simply because of its need for staff; organisations in the sector don’t have enough staff, so they have to recruit, says Joseph.

“They recruit straight from outside of Europe. They need staff in nursing homes, hospitals, nursing,” she says.

Other sectors with a proven track record for hiring those from a broad range of ethnicities include customer service centres – across a variety of industries – which need people with different languages.

The bad…

While Dr Joseph doesn’t explicitly name any sector that is not doing as well on the employment front, she does point out that while industries might be good at entry-level hiring, far fewer people of colour than white people move up to middle and senior management. “When you start drilling down there are problems,” she says. “People who should be promoted are not being promoted as fast. When you look at senior management you see how white it is. You have to leave Ireland to progress.

“Another problem is, if colleagues don’t co-operate with you you’re in trouble. If there are people who have to work with you or under you as a manager and you can’t get them to [because of their racist attitudes], this is a problem. As a result, people who are qualified are not applying for these roles.”

Joseph says a lack of upward mobility in the medical profession is also problematic. “When you start to talking to them you find out they have had to go to Canada or the US to progress their careers. They don’t become consultants, they don’t get trained to become consultants. It’s problematic,” she adds.

In academia there are similar problems. “A lot of black people have PhDs. Universities don’t even have one single person of colour in their university. The teaching profession is doing badly, the Civil Service is doing badly. You can a look at a school and see only one person of colour on staff.

“Black students don’t become teachers because they don’t see black teachers.”

The ugly…

The INAR says that although employment discrimination is outlawed by Irish equality legislation, it remains a persistent feature of the labour market.

“Ireland continues to operate a guest-worker model, with few rights enshrined in law. Migrant workers (particularly women and the undocumented) are over-represented in low-paid and precarious sectors of the labour market,” it states in its racial discrimination report.

“As part of a new national action plan against racism, the State should introduce targeted measures to strengthen access to the labour market to address discrimination and progression, as well as measures to address exploitation.”

It concedes that there are “positive measures being undertaken in recruitment to public bodies”.

What needs to be done?

Joseph says companies in Ireland need to do more to hire and promote people of colour.

“They are often educated in Ireland, so it’s not a case that their qualifications aren’t adequate – it all boils down to racism,” she adds. “They’re willing to take you at entry level but they’re not willing to take you at a higher level. There are people of colour at the lower levels – for example, in the airport they work as ground staff, cleaners, moving luggage – but there are no people of colour processing your documents, for example.”

She is amazed that she is often the first black teacher her students have had throughout their education. “It’s still very bad. We need to improve on that,” she adds.

We need to talk about racial equity in addition to EDI policies, Joseph says.

“A lot of people don’t talk about race any more – it’s ‘diversity and inclusion’. Race is at the bottom of that ladder. There is gender, religion, LGBTQ and more included – but we don’t come on the agenda. But there actually has to be active antiracism in addition to diversity and inclusion. There’s nothing been done to improve the challenges of black people.”