International   

Asylum seeker becomes Mayor

Owen Bowcott

— PHOTO: AP

Rotimi Adebari (left), with outgoing Mayor Brian Stanley in Portlaoise, Ireland, on Friday.

Ireland’s first black mayor on Friday hailed his election as a symbol of how European countries can adapt successfully to rapid rates of immigration.

Rotimi Adebari, who arrived seven years ago as an asylum seeker and became a councillor in 2004, has been chosen as the first citizen of Portlaoise, county Laois.

He is a Christian from Nigeria and was forced to flee his hometown of Okeodan in the south-western state of Ogun because of religious persecution. When he settled in Portlaoise with his wife and family, his two children were the only foreign pupils in the local school; there are now more than 30 nationalities in its classes.

Irish society has undergone an extraordinarily swift transformation, partially fuelled by its Celtic Tiger economic boom. Having experienced centuries of emigration, the tide has turned.

Ten years ago around 1.5 per cent of Ireland’s population was born abroad. That figure, which has been boosted by a massive influx of workers from Eastern Europe, now stands at 10 per cent.

Mr. Adebari (43), who could not find a job when he first arrived because of laws that banned asylum seekers from gaining paid work, set up an unemployment support group in County Laois. Speaking on Friday, he declared: “I feel great. I feel thrilled. I give thanks to all the people of Portlaoise.

“Involving people from many ethnic backgrounds is the only way to go. This confirms that Ireland really is a country of a hundred, thousand welcomes and a land of equal opportunities.

“I am the ambassador for the town and we can show that Ireland has done something that is unique. Other countries may have had multiculturalism for a long time, but Ireland has done this in a very short period. The United States has only just elected its second black Governor, in Massachusetts, and that’s after 300 years. We here can be a model for all around Europe and the world.”

Mr. Adebari, who recently gained a masters degree in intercultural studies at Dublin City University, now works for the county council on an integration project for new immigrants.

He was elected as an independent and won the mayoralty with backing from other independents, as well as Fine Gael and Sinn Fein councillors.

Immigration did not feature as a mainstream issue at the last election. Ireland has absorbed more than 30,000 asylum seekers since the mid-1990s, many from Nigeria, in addition to E.U. workers.

—

Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Millions set to join Hong Kong fete
Explosives-laden truck seized
Asylum seeker becomes Mayor
Suicide bomber kills 20
Yechury briefs Singapore leaders

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu