For the last two years, the government has run a scheme that, nominally at least, offers young asylum seekers the chance to enter higher education. But, as it enters its third year, it’s hard not to be disappointed by the effort the government is putting into education for asylum seekers.
Over the last two years, the scheme – which is still a pilot and subject to yearly review – has only helped a handful of applicants. In 2015, out of 39 applications, two people were successful. Last year, only 15 applied. Two were successful.
It shouldn’t need to be pointed out that the cost of such a scheme is negligible. Or that young asylum seekers intelligent and hardworking enough to get into college despite the humiliations and poverties of the direct provision system deserve more from a government that’s Minister for Education has repeatedly talked about the importance of access to secondary and tertiary education. Or indeed that these barriers are government-made – it is in the criteria that demand five years at an Irish school that must block many aspiring students.
None of this is surprising, however. In a country that shows no sign of ending direct provision, a lacklustre attitude to supporting aspiring refugees is hardly a shock. Instead, Irish universities have stepped into the breach, offering scholarships to support asylum seekers who want to access education. The comparisons are telling – the scholarship scheme established by the University of Limerick offers 17 students the chance to take part in education, more than the total number of students supported by the government. Again, students in Trinity voted to award €6,000 to an asylum seeker to continue their education. The efforts of cash-strapped institutions and students’ unions, it seems, have done little to embarrass our government into action.
If the gateway to education in Ireland is narrow for asylum seekers, this matches our national policy. The country’s lack of enthusiasm for taking its share of refugees has been widely criticised, but the government appears to pay it little heed. If the scheme offers a few asylum seekers the chance to meet their “potential”, as Richard Bruton has said, we might only wonder why the government as a whole seems focused on undermining the hopes and ambitions of every refugee who arrives here.
