Many nationalists share the DUP’s disdain for “woke nonsense” and feel abandoned by Sinn Féin, the SDLP and Alliance, according to DUP MLA Johnny Buckley.
Speaking at his party’s annual conference last weekend, he cited immigration as a particular area where “people are crying out for common sense policies”.
Buckley is almost certainly correct, at least to a degree, but the DUP is fortunate this cross-community frustration is not blowing up its face.
Housing and welfare, two of the most contentious issues related to immigration, are the responsibility of its communities minister, Gordon Lyons.
Immigration itself is not devolved and all aspects of it are managed over Stormont’s head by the Home Office and its agencies and contractors.
Accommodation of asylum seekers, for example, is run by Mears, a private company with the contract for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Yorkshire.
So the DUP can legitimately claim its hands are tied. Lyons and party colleagues have met Mears and repeatedly raised concerns in Stormont and Westminster about the impact of its activities on the rental market.
The DUP has also pressed Westminster to extend to Northern Ireland the law in England requiring landlords to check a tenant’s immigration status.
Nevertheless, Lyons has options to take a more aggressive position.
Mears can only fulfil its Home Office contract by leasing property to use or convert into Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs).
Regulation of HMOs falls under the Department for Communities. It is easy to imagine ‘common sense policies’ that would stop Mears and push it back.
All benefits except child benefit are devolved.
Officially, asylum seekers have no access to benefits and most other migrants have heavily restricted access. However, there are numerous exceptions, including for housing. The Home Office sets these rules but the Department for Communities administers and enforces them.
It has wide scope to close loopholes and crack down on fraud and error. Stormont would even get to keep half the savings, under a deal Lyons reached with the Treasury in July.
Stormont can also change the rules for eligibility to social housing and for benefits in general.
Although this could not target migrants specifically, it could raise the bar for new arrivals in practice. An example might be awarding more points for social housing due to time spent on the waiting list.
Of course, if Lyons proposed any of this, Sinn Féin would be compelled to veto it, due to its own convictions and pressure from the SDLP and other parties.
That would put everyone on the spot, at Stormont and council level – councils enforce the regulations on HMOs.
Interestingly, there are tentative signs of councils cracking down on HMOs in areas with large migrant populations.
This has cross-party support but it has all been rather low-key. Can the DUP and Sinn Féin only cooperate on this subject by playing down their cooperation?
Tougher policies aimed at migrants would also face objections from liberal institutions and civic society groups.
In his conference remarks, Buckley complained about the “mainstream media, lawyers, civil servants and quangos”.
This is a further reason why it is difficult to see such policies ever getting further than the trouble-making proposal stage.
But could the liberal stance be counter-productive?
There might be far less concern and prejudice over immigration if existing rules were more firmly enforced and seen to be enforced.
That would address the perceptions of unfairness that stoke fear and resentment.
The vast majority of migrants in Northern Ireland are in employment and paying taxes.
Many pay an additional £1,000 a year visa fee to use the health service that adds about £50 million annually to Stormont’s budget.
Fear of crime by refugees and asylum seekers appears wildly overblown.
Yet the public lacks confidence in the integrity of the system because it does not trust the authorities to manage it robustly or report problems honestly. A visibly tougher approach would benefit everyone.
DUP MLA Phillip Brett alluded to this in a statement three weeks ago.
“Those who came to Northern Ireland through the proper legal process are often the most appalled at those who try to break the rules they had to follow,” he said.
“We must uphold fairness, protect our borders, and ensure that those who invest in our country and respect our laws are never undermined by those who don’t.”
Those are fine words, but without the audacious action required to back them up, Stormont parties are just posturing
The suspicion must be that this suits everyone only too well.
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