Intersections of coloniality, structural racism and gender in political institutions: The Case of Migrant Women in Ireland

In 2022, the Central Statistical Office of Ireland reported that there were 120,700 immigrants within the Irish population. Approximately 703,700 non-Irish nationals currently live in the State, a significant increase from the 2021 estimates which reported 645,500 non-Irish nationals. This has been an ongoing trend for the past decade, and this increase in migrants has also mean a steady increase in racial, social, and cultural diversity in a country which has traditionally defined itself as a country of emigrants. This paper will look at the socio-cultural challenges that make accessing support services difficult for migrant women in Ireland, and the forms of structural racism which makes these barriers persistent. Through a critical discourse analysis of the strategies adopted by the government in relation to migrants, undocumented workers and asylum seekers using Linda Smith’s decolonising methodology, this paper will examine how bodies of migrant survivors become the location where the colonialities in state politics, citizenship, and exclusions come to fore. The bodies of certain migrants like mothers and domestic violence survivors become not only the political site but also the intersection of linguistic, cultural and ideological representations and mis- representations.