15 Hyphenated citizens as outsiders
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Bashir Otukoya
Abstract
This chapter examines, from a Nigerian-Irish perspective, difficulties encountered by hyphenated citizens in their efforts to become accepted as belonging to the Irish nation. It examines rules and processes that remind immigrants who have become naturalised Irish citizens that they are still outsiders. The chapter also examines difficulties faced by hyphenated citizens in asserting their own ethnic identities. Hyphenated citizens are positioned in a precarious situation. One longs to be accepted into both one’s ‘home’ and host society, only to be met with questions of identity that conflict the mind. One’s longing to belong can never be satisfied, because for example, one is neither Irish, nor Nigerian, enough. One carefully threads along the blurred concept of ‘home’, unable to determine where ‘home’ is. Not at one’s own will of course, but because one’s self-assertion to a particular identity is met with enquiry from those who deem that identity theirs: ‘are you one of us?’ Drawing on the concept of ‘super-citizens’, the chapter interrogates the ways in which over-assimilation can facilitate both exclusion from one’s ‘home’ society and racism by the majority, undermining the cultural and ontological facilitators of integration.
Abstract
This chapter examines, from a Nigerian-Irish perspective, difficulties encountered by hyphenated citizens in their efforts to become accepted as belonging to the Irish nation. It examines rules and processes that remind immigrants who have become naturalised Irish citizens that they are still outsiders. The chapter also examines difficulties faced by hyphenated citizens in asserting their own ethnic identities. Hyphenated citizens are positioned in a precarious situation. One longs to be accepted into both one’s ‘home’ and host society, only to be met with questions of identity that conflict the mind. One’s longing to belong can never be satisfied, because for example, one is neither Irish, nor Nigerian, enough. One carefully threads along the blurred concept of ‘home’, unable to determine where ‘home’ is. Not at one’s own will of course, but because one’s self-assertion to a particular identity is met with enquiry from those who deem that identity theirs: ‘are you one of us?’ Drawing on the concept of ‘super-citizens’, the chapter interrogates the ways in which over-assimilation can facilitate both exclusion from one’s ‘home’ society and racism by the majority, undermining the cultural and ontological facilitators of integration.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Traveller health inequalities as legacies of exclusion 22
- 2 Sectarian legacies and the marginalisation of migrants 33
- 3 Institutional responses to racism in both Irelands 47
- 4 African asylum seekers and refugees in both Irelands 58
- 5 African non-employment and labour market disadvantage 72
- 6 The lives of Filipino-Irish care workers 89
- 7 Polish spaces in a divided city 100
- 8 Experiences of racism in social housing 113
- 9 Roma rights and racism 126
- 10 Normalising racism in the Irish media 140
- 11 Children and young people on the margins 160
- 12 Immigrant-origin children and the education system 173
- 13 Young Muslims as insiders and outsiders 186
- 14 Brexit, borders and belonging 200
- 15 Hyphenated citizens as outsiders 213
- Conclusion 229
- Select bibliography 243
- Index 250
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Traveller health inequalities as legacies of exclusion 22
- 2 Sectarian legacies and the marginalisation of migrants 33
- 3 Institutional responses to racism in both Irelands 47
- 4 African asylum seekers and refugees in both Irelands 58
- 5 African non-employment and labour market disadvantage 72
- 6 The lives of Filipino-Irish care workers 89
- 7 Polish spaces in a divided city 100
- 8 Experiences of racism in social housing 113
- 9 Roma rights and racism 126
- 10 Normalising racism in the Irish media 140
- 11 Children and young people on the margins 160
- 12 Immigrant-origin children and the education system 173
- 13 Young Muslims as insiders and outsiders 186
- 14 Brexit, borders and belonging 200
- 15 Hyphenated citizens as outsiders 213
- Conclusion 229
- Select bibliography 243
- Index 250
