DUP & RSF : "Employ native over migrant"

Now heres something interesting:

Environment Minister Sammy Wilson has said firms should give jobs to locals ahead of foreign nationals in the current economic downturn. He said it made sense to give preference to people "with roots here". "A lot of people moved in because of opportunities that there were," said Mr Wilson, who is also a DUP MP.

Alliance leader David Ford said: "Whether somebody is from Carrick, Craigavon or Krakow, the best person should always get the job." "Mr Wilson needs to careful not to be seen to be encouraging people to return to the sort of times when a preference was given because of somebody's religion or indeed sex."

Eva Grosman, who publishes a Polish magazine for Northern Ireland, said politicians should be focusing on addressing the economic difficulties instead of trying to discriminate against migrant workers.

BBC News

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Not too long ago also, came this; from the recent Republican Sinn Féin Ard Fheis (via The Irish Bulletin) :

70. In this period of economic uncertainty RSF should insist on the employment of native workers in preference to migrant workers to insure that we do not return to the mass emigration of our Irish youth - Limerick Comhairle Ceantair

71. That this Ard-Fheis condemns all Irish employers who discriminate against Irish workers in the present economic crisis - Smith O’Brien/Colbert Cumann, West Limerick



It seems surreal saying this, but the DUP and RSF have both reached the same very sensible and admirable conclusion. Regardless of your wider political stripes this can only be seen as positive - as much for the fact it indicates Irish politics might be coming back down to planet earth as the implications for the Irish workforce.

I'm not surprised one bit however at the alliance MLA using sectarian-guilt as a rod to beat a dissenter to mass immigration/multiculturalism - I had long been waiting for that one to come into fashion. Frankly though it's absurdity is obvious. There is a pretty big difference between the contemporary problem - when employers are overlooking a swelling population of native born unemployed whilst importing foreign workers - and a time when there weren't many jobs anyway but protestant employers were deliberately overlooking catholics.