{"id":493808,"date":"2026-06-11T06:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T06:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/493808\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T06:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T06:15:10","slug":"northern-irelands-politicians-have-no-power-over-immigration-london-controls-it-all-the-irish-times-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/493808\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland\u2019s politicians have no power over immigration. London controls it all \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

No aspect of immigration<\/a> is devolved to Northern Ireland<\/a>. London controls it all.<\/p>\n

That includes everything you might expect \u2013 border security, visa rules, treaty obligations \u2013 plus much more you might not. Quotas and wages for migrant workers are set nationally. The entire asylum system is run by the UK Home Office using accommodation supplied by private contractors. Immigration offences, including illegal working, are policed by Home Office staff rather than by the PSNI<\/a>. Even crimes associated with foreign gangs tend to be policed by UK-wide agencies.<\/p>\n

Asylum seekers granted refugee status and visa holders granted indefinite leave to remain become entitled to benefits and social housing on the same terms as British and Irish citizens. Those entitlements are devolved in theory but not in practice. Stormont<\/a> cannot treat lawful residents differently to citizens under equality laws written into the Belfast Agreement<\/a> and the Windsor Framework.<\/p>\n

So Northern Ireland\u2019s politicians are effectively spectators in the great political issue of our times. There is little they can do beyond setting tones and striking postures.<\/p>\n

Like the PSNI, they can only brace themselves for the violent actions and reactions large-scale immigration has made statistically more likely, although still mercifully rare. The spark does not even have to occur in Northern Ireland. Racist rioting across mainly unionist areas in 2024<\/a> followed the murder of three children in England.<\/p>\n

There was a night of violence in Belfast following a knife attack that left one man critically injured. Video: Reuters\/Enda O’Dowd\/Andrew McNair <\/p>\n

After Monday\u2019s horrific attack<\/a> in north Belfast, for which a Sudanese national has been charged<\/a>, the leaders of Stormont\u2019s five largest parties issued a joint statement condemning the attack and calling for calm. However, parties often take positions against each other.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a>, the SDLP and Alliance accused the DUP<\/a> of dangerous anti-immigration rhetoric after racist riots last year<\/a>, again in mainly unionist areas. The DUP insisted it was merely raising its constituents\u2019 \u201clegitimate concerns\u201d and the true danger is letting frustration build.<\/p>\n

Racism has been associated with unionist areas because that is where immigrants have been able to find housing, due to the decline of the Protestant population. Newcomers often end up in neighbourhoods \u201cdefended\u201d by loyalist paramilitaries, who may exploit, extort or attack them for a bewildering array of reasons.<\/p>\n

Republican communities take pride in behaving better. None were drawn into Tuesday night\u2019s violence, despite the north Belfast attack occurring in a republican area. There are genuine political differences behind these distinctions but they are still underpinned by available space on Northern Ireland\u2019s narrow and contested ground. The economics of this is now being transformed by the changing scale and nature of immigration. In 2024, the Home Office adopted a new asylum accommodation policy, moving people out of hotels into rented housing. Its private contractor, Mears, is funded to offer landlords terms and conditions few private tenants can match.<\/p>\n

Houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) for migrant workers are also highly profitable for landlords, pushing up house prices and reducing the number of family homes. People are struggling to rent or buy in unionist and nationalist areas, with immigration increasingly blamed.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Violence that followed Belfast knife attack widely condemnedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Social housing is particularly contentious as it is in eternally short supply. Asylum seekers have to leave their Home Office accommodation when they are granted refugee status, which usually renders them homeless and pushes them to the front of the social housing waiting list. The shortage is such that they will first spend some time in emergency accommodation \u2013 hostels, bed and breakfasts, or leased flats or houses. The part of north Belfast where Monday\u2019s attack took place has a big concentration of emergency accommodation, second only to west Belfast.<\/p>\n

The DUP controls housing, social housing and benefits at Stormont. It has repeatedly raised asylum policy with both the Home Office and Mears, and been told this is none of its business.<\/p>\n

Most parties have been pushing back against new HMOs, which can be blocked by council planning committees. Sinn F\u00e9in has joined this pushback, especially in north and west Belfast. The question is whether this will evolve into a tougher stance on immigration in general.<\/p>\n

Hours before Monday\u2019s attack, the Irish Republican Socialist Party issued a statement on immigration in west Belfast, complaining residents are being \u201cdemonised\u201d as far right, racist and bigoted for raising legitimate concerns about housing, public services and unprecedented \u201cdemographic shifts\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite the IRSP\u2019s tiny size, Sinn F\u00e9in will have taken this extremely seriously, knowing it comes from an informed assessment of the mood in its political heartland.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Man\u2019s home \u2018destroyed, top to bottom\u2019 by fire in Belfast violenceOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Perversely, this week\u2019s violence gives Sinn F\u00e9in more time for a response. It cannot be seen to be moving in tandem with racist rioting, nor would its supporters want it to be.<\/p>\n

But the party is under pressure to change and the first step towards a new position is obvious. It can say the North would not be powerless on immigration in a united Ireland, implying a rather different Ireland to the one Sinn F\u00e9in has promised so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No aspect of immigration is devolved to Northern Ireland. London controls it all. That includes everything you might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4501,14063,61,1629,60,43,23368,2443,3415,1577],"class_list":["post-493808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-belfast","tag-dup-links","tag-ie","tag-immigration","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-newton-emerson","tag-northern-ireland","tag-sinn-fein","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}