Unintended Consequences: Divisions of Care within Ireland's Response to Ukranian Refugees and Impacts on Asylum seekers

This paper explores the consequences of war on the rights of minorities through analysis of Ireland’s response to Ukrainian refugees and its impacts on the position and treatment of asylum seekers in the international protection system. Brining a feminist ethics of care perspective, we consider failures in Ireland’s ‘duty of care’ toward asylum seekers. This mixed methods research begins with sharing empirical evidence from semi structured interviews which sought to understand asylum seekers experiences of care and living ‘under the care’ of the Irish state in an institutionalized system of Direct Provision accommodation. During the conduct of empirical fieldwork, the Russian invasion of Ukraine created a humanitarian crisis leading to Ireland taking in thousands of refugees as part of their shared responsibility to implement the European Union Temporary Protection Directive. The strain of tens of thousands of new arrivals on the international protection system inadvertently emerged in our research as participants expressed dismay at the differential response of the Irish state and society to people arriving from Ukraine. We complement these impressions with policy analysis that demonstrates incoherence between entitlements the Irish state has immediately afforded Ukrainian refugees compared to the limits of what is awarded to asylum seekers. We add analysis of Irish media revealing how the State and society have responded to the Ukrainian refugee crisis showing shifts in attitudes towards Ukrainian refugees in the context of multiple intersecting crises, particularly housing. We raise concerns that social tensions will inhibit integration of all people seeking international protection in Ireland and suggest that an embrace of care values could reform international protection systems.