Immigrant children badly bullied - study [IrishTimes]
- Published: 25 September 2010
IMMIGRANT CHILDREN as young as seven or eight years are experiencing serious racist bullying in primary schools in inner city Dublin, a new study shows.
Research undertaken by the Trinity Immigration Initiative at seven primary schools in Dublin’s north inner city shows racist bullying is taking place inside and outside the classroom. Teachers are often not aware of the full extent of the racial problems as the children concerned often try and hide what is going on from adults.
Dr Philip Curry of the initiative told a conference yesterday there was a “clear strand of name-calling and bullying with specific racial overtones evident in most schools”.
He said name-calling was more typical than physical abuse, although acts of physical violence were occurring in primary schools.
Dr Curry said there was evidence racist abuse had serious negative impacts on children, leading to depression, delinquency and health problems. He provided details of one interview with an eight-year-old Nigerian who, when asked if he would change anything about himself, responded by saying he wanted to be white.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
