Provision vs responsibility
It seems that the Emergency Services in the Republic of Ireland have come under fire recently after enquiries by a Dublin based newspaper revealed that Garda (Police), Ambulance and Fire Services within the greater Dublin area and beyond have no provision in place for interpretation services for non-English speaking residents. Official figures put immigrant numbers at 10 to 15% of the Irish population although there are no figures for how many of these do not speak English sufficiently well to manage without interpreting services.
This situation has brought to the fore, a series of old arguments regarding immigration and the responsibility of immigrants; the essence of these is that although some immigrants such as refugees may well have been forced to foreign countries by circumstance and that in the interim, provision of interpreting services should be provided to aid them in their interactions, it then behoves them to attempt to integrate themselves into their host country by learning that country’s language. As an extension to this line of thought, it is argued that an immigrant who is a non-refugee should take the personal responsibility to learn the language of the country that he wishes to settle in before going there in order that he can function and interact within the framework of that country.
Now of course, there are many arguments and counter arguments in regard to the above points, but the merits of personal responsibility over blanket provision seem to resonate with many people.
As for myself personally, I can’t help wondering whether if Ireland manage to gain recognition for Gaelic as an official language of the EC, that would mean that they would have to provide two sets of interpreters; one set for immigrants who couldn’t speak English and another set for both immigrants and native Irishmen alike, who couldn’t speak Gaelic!