Sanctuary Runners call on new government to adopt a ‘Community Integration Strategy’ for migrants and wider society

Expressing frustration that the last integration strategy expired at the end of 2021 he said the strategy fell woefully short of delivering for migrants and Irish society overall.

“The targets set out in the last plan looked great on paper but in practice few of the objectives ever left the page. They were aspirational with limited action. For example, it sought to herald intercultural training for all front-line staff in Government departments, clearly that hasn’t happened. It sought local authorities to develop their own integration strategies – many have not. A national strategy needs to have teeth – otherwise, without accountability, we allow a vacuum to develop in Irish society and divisive narratives to spawn. We need to find ways to bring people together in communities across Ireland. Initiatives such as Sanctuary Runners do this – but there needs to be a state-led strategy of community bridge-building to help foster so many more of these local and national initiatives.”

In late 2023 a consultation process was launched by the Department of Integration to seek input from a cross section of society for a new ‘Migrant Integration strategy’ but Graham Clifford, founder of Sanctuary Runners, and other initiatives focused on community integration, believes the new government needs to change its approach before it’s too late.

“The feedback received during the consultation process can contribute to a new ‘Community Integration Strategy’ but we cannot have another plan which offers so much and fails to deliver.

The huge majority of community integration that happens in Ireland at the moment is achieved and championed by volunteers and civic society on the ground. But still so many people are isolated, overlooked, not heard or included because of their nationality, legal status, ethnicity, religion or culture. Sanctuary Runners is the only organisation in Ireland with a sole focus on community integration. We know what we’re talking about because we work on integration week-in, week-out. If you really want to build social cohesion and resilient communities across Ireland you need to broaden the focus of the integration plan – the state needs to start doing and stop talking about doing – along the lines of the Sanctuary Runners ‘With’ rather than ‘For’ model.”

He added: “We still have a confused view, as a country, on what integration is – as a result the former Integration strategy was never fit-for-purpose. Translating a few documents into other languages is not integration….holding an Africa day once a year is not integration, talking about ‘integration into the labour market’ is different to feeling part of a community. Integration needs to be something championed and enabled in every community across the country on a daily basis and informed by best practice and the views of people who now live in Ireland but come from other countries originally.  And crucially it needs to involve everyone – not just migrants”.

The Sanctuary Runners’ proposal calls for the annual Communities Integration Fund to focus more on new innovations in the area of community integration – rather than, as has been the case to date, on existing groups which often receive a small amount of funding which just covers the costs of some bills.