Kilkenny Integration Forum Submission on
National Integration Policy
to
Minister for Justice and Equality
May 2014
Background Information on Kilkenny Integration Forum
Kilkenny Integration Forum was formed in 2010, with the following core aim: to recognise diversity
and promote intercultural harmony in County Kilkenny by providing opportunities for community,
business and statutory sectors to interact regularly and support collaborative initiatives. The Forum
was established with the support of Kilkenny County Council, Kilkenny City Mayor’s Office and a
number of local organisations. Since its formation it has had a very diverse membership, with about
80 people from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds involved at various times over the past 4 years.
At present, it has 20-30 active members, and a steering committee that meets once every month.
The following are some of the key activities of the Forum since its formation:
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Produced a “Racism Awareness Leaflet” with Kilkenny Community Policing Unit (available in
PDF format in every Garda Station around Ireland through the internal Garda portal)
Provided free English language training through the Fáilte Isteach conversational English
language programme (with an on-going team of volunteer tutors)
Organised or supported a number of intercultural events (different types of events based
around art, food, music & dance and/or sport)
Developed a long-term integration strategy for the county, “Uniting the Diverse – Kilkenny
Integration Strategy 2013-2017”
Summary Findings from Kilkenny Integration Planning Process during 2012
Last year members of Kilkenny Integration Forum lead a participatory
planning process to develop County Kilkenny’s first long-term
integration strategy, which was launched in April 2013.
The first phase of this integration planning process involved 129
people of 19 different ethnic communities and/or 43 local service
providers. The experiences of these participants offers factual, firsthand perspectives that may be of value to the Joint Committee, both
in terms of initiatives that promote integration and existing
challenges at local level. Details can be found in the integration
strategy document, but the table below offers a summary, under a
number of thematic headings.
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Summary of findings from Kilkenny integration planning process, 2012
+ Existing Positives
- Challenges to Integration
Theme 1: Employment & Economic Activity
+ Past and current employment experiences and
related training opportunities
+ High uptake of “Start your own business” courses
among ethnic minority individuals
+ Very high levels of and good visibility of diversity in
the craft sector
+ Broad range of commercial services available
- Money and financial advice
- Barriers to credit
- Unemployment
- Under-employment in relation to qualification
Theme 2: Education & Training
+ Having access to and receiving support within
education
+ English language training programmes
+ Some notices/brochures/etc produced in a number
of different languages
+ Using plain English and illustrations when giving
talks and information sessions
- Understanding and engaging with the education
system
- Traveller children often have negative experiences
of school
- Difficulties getting secondary school places without
previous family connections
- Language barriers and communication problems
Theme 3: Active Civic & Civil Participation
+ Interaction through sport
- Feeling isolated and unsure about access to and the
use of public spaces/ facilities
+ Social interaction and sharing common interests or
values
- Language barriers and communication problems
+ Volunteering and personal involvement
- Off-putting interactions with service providers
+ Facilitation exhibitions, cultural events and national
celebrations
- Organisational capacity to adapt and change
Theme 4: Social Inclusion (Interacting with Services)
+ Being open to suggestions from ethnic minority
groups
+ Positive experiences of community and statutory
support services
- Off-putting interactions with service providers
- Organisational capacity to adapt and change
+ Community policing
- Limited outreach work
+ Health and well-being
- Not easy to identify new ethnic minority groups
+ Significant progress by Traveller Community Health
Workers Project
- Language barriers and communication problems
+ Presence of family and children
- Reliance on informal translation arrangements
- Health-related concerns (including the impact of
weather on health)
- Childcare expenses
- Housing & accommodation arrangements
Theme 5: Social Inclusion (Culture, Identity & Discrimination)
+ Recognition & respect for culture, heritage &
religion
- Ability to retain one’s own personal identity and
roots
+ Library: culture-specific & multi-lingual materials
- The ability to practice one’s own culture
+ Facilitating exhibitions, cultural events & national
celebrations
+ Social interaction & sharing common interests or
values
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- Cultural differences
- Racism and hostile attitudes
+ Availability of technology and innovations in ICT
+ Open door policy and welcoming all
- Unintentional discrimination and inaccurate
assumptions
- Difficulties highlighting issues of concern for specific
communities without generating stereotypes
+ No tolerance for racist attitudes from staff or
volunteers
+ Some diversity training for staff a few years ago
+ Community policing
During the planning process, participants were also asked to rate the above challenges. The graph
below indicates the relative importance of each issue in the opinion of those involved in this
integration planning process around County Kilkenny.
As shown above, those representing the perspective of various communities rated the following as
the 3 most important issues to them:
1. Racism and hostile attitudes
2. Understanding and engaging with the education system
3. Unintentional discrimination and inaccurate assumptions
While, the top 3 issues for local service providers reflected a somewhat different perspective:
1. Organisational capacity to adapt and engage
2. Cultural differences
3. Language barriers and communication problems
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Recommendations to Minister for Justice and Equality
The actions outlined in the local integration strategy, “Uniting the Diverse” aim to address a number
of challenges to integration at county level in Kilkenny. However, members of Kilkenny Integration
Forum also feel that a number of national initiatives could enhance these efforts, and indeed address
issues that cannot be meaningfully resolved without nationwide action. With this in mind, Kilkenny
Integration Forum, wish to make the following recommendations:
1. The national integration policy/ strategy would include some element of support for the
implementation of locally-based strategies, such as “Uniting the Diverse: Kilkenny
Integration Strategy 2013-2017.
2. It would be beneficial if the next stage of this process to develop a national integration
policy includes direct engagement with active integration forums and ethnic minority-led
organisations at local level.
3. The national integration policy should include specific actions, be sufficiently resourced
and be underpinned by an active implementation and monitoring structure.
4. Standardised anti-racism and diversity training should be provided to all public sector staff,
as a measure to address problems arising from “unintentional discrimination and
inaccurate assumptions”. In addition, compulsory tailored diversity training could be
included as one of the means of engaging with individual staff about whom racist
complaints are made.
5. All public bodies should appoint an individual to whom complaints would be made in
relation to racism in the delivery of services within that agency. This individual, and the
procedure by which complaints are made, should be publicised and easily knowable to
every service user (regardless of language difficulties).
6. Based on our experience in Kilkenny, we strongly recommend that a local authority level
integration forum be established in every local government area around the country and
that they be adequately supported and resourced. In addition, the Office for the
Promotion of Migrant Integration should be resourced to provide support and a known
point of contact for local integration forums and/or implementation committees
overseeing local integration strategies.
Kilkenny Integration Forum, c/o Kilkenny County Council, John’s Green House, John’s Green,
Kilkenny
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