Dear Ebun, to what extent is the so-called “drinking culture” something non-Irish need to adopt in order to feel integrated within the Irish culture?
Thanks for this interesting question. We need to unpack it because it is full of innuendo.
First is the stereotyping of the Irish through the notion of a “drinking culture”.
Second is the reference to “non-Irish”. Who are they? What does it mean to be non-anything? Are the “non-Irish” population permanent strangers? When does a person of migrant descent stop being “non-Irish”?
Lastly, is the mention of the need of the “non-Irish” to integrate. This ignores the fact that integration is a two-way process and both the host and newcomers are active participants in making it work.
As a person of Black African descent living and working in Ireland, I am averse to stereotyping groups. It can be very damaging.
While it provides a shortcut to understanding how different groups behave, referring to the “drinking culture” of the Irish ignores the almost 20 percent of the population that abstains from drink.
That being said, drinking culture is difficult to define, as there is no consensus of what it really means. In Ireland, many things happen around drink: bonding, camaraderie, socialising, and networking.
Grouping also happens, with insiders and outsiders. It can be gendered or raced. It can separate those who are in, and those who are out.
Real integration is not about the three Ds – dance, diet, and dress of a people – but about their access to economic resources through employment.
If we strip back this question, it simply means how much of their host’s culture must a “non-Irish” person adopt to be able to navigate the labour market?
Based on the ability or inability of people of migrant descent to get paid work and progress in their careers, I have argued in my previous studies that in Ireland, “to be is to be like”.
In other words, the more you look and act like the Irish, the better your chances of success in the world of waged work. While some might think that this is okay, in race relations, this is assimilation, not integration.
When we operate a system that rewards people for looking and acting like the host, it impacts on their identities and we miss out on real talent.
Upward mobility in racially invested societies has historically involved “passing” in exchange for access to economic opportunities.
This has often been one of the few strategies used by marginalised migrant groups to circumvent the negative impact of race, their racial positioning, classification and its associated socioeconomic disadvantages.
In the United States, a route historically employed by those classified as non-whites or Blacks was to pretend to be possessors of whiteness, which in the parlance of racist America is called “passing”, to take advantage of opportunities that would have otherwise been denied to them.
Adopting the so-called “drink culture” of the Irish will be tantamount to passing. This is two-pronged, as first it suggests our system is not meritocratic, and second that “non-Irish” are compelled to change parts of themselves to fit in.
Although “passing” is still seen by many as an American phenomenon that is steeped in its history of slavery and subjugation of Blacks, and has yet to cross over the European borders, I believe it is more widely operational in the labour market than supposed.
New York University Professor Brooke Kroeger in her book Passing: When People Can’t Be Who They Are contends that passing is not a thing of the past, nor is it simply a black-and-white matter, but rather, “when there is prejudice and preconception in society, there is passing”.
There is a move from overt assimilation to a covert demand for practices that encourage and reward muting non-white features, cultures and practices. This is becoming prevalent but unrecognised.
It comes under the guise of “integration”, “ethnicity”, “cultural diversity”, “professionalism” and “multiculturalism”. It is seen as the norm, the natural and logical course of action.
This move, driven by nationalism, is prevalent in recruitment and mobility within the labour market. Even I, in my role as a career-development consultant, am guilty of encouraging people of migrant descent to speak with more Westernised phonetics because, from my lived experience, I find that migrant workers who can speak without their native accent have an increased chance of getting a paid job.
The question though is where do you stop? It starts with the accent, then the way you dress – meaning you dress European all the time, as this is seen as the professional image.
Then it moves to hair, and Black women have to adopt artificial weaves, matching Western hair, because that makes them look more professional to be accepted and “fit” in. When does it stop? What is the cost to the person? Would they have to reduce their curvaceous hips? The size of their lips? The list could go on.
Truth be told, many have done this and gone to the extreme of skin lightening in order to fit in. Looking at the higher unemployment rate among the members of the non-Irish population who look least like the host, one can understand why people feel compelled to self-assimilate or pass in order to progress.
Some indeed may try to pass, some separate themselves from the marginalised groups while others bear negative treatment in exchange for access to economic and educational opportunities because it is a bit better than their previous economic outcome.
The impact can, however, involve a level of hiding the true self, self-masking, invisibilisation, being evaluated negatively by their community and even being seen as inauthentic, which can result in self-annihilation, as critical-legal scholar Cheryl Harris has put it.
Migrants who are permitted to break through the barrier of racial exclusion into jobs involving public contact are more likely to be those who exhibit characteristics close to those of the dominant racial group.
This reinforces the view that race still matters in influencing the socioeconomic outcomes of “non-Irish” workers in society. A more worrying conclusion is that although assimilation is not overtly practised, it is covertly expected, demanded and rewarded.
If you have a question about race or identity in contemporary Ireland that you’d like Ebun to tackle, send it to info@dublininquirer.com.