How a misheard chant became ‘We want passports’ on X
Yesterday, a publication posted a video on X of asylum seekers outside the Dail on International Human Rights Day. It said they were demanding Irish passports, and the clip was captioned to suggest the crowd was chanting: ‘We want passports!’ The replies were, predictably, angry and abusive.
The problem is, the chant doesn’t sound like ‘We want passports’. It’s more like one of those misheard-lyrics routines, where a comedian tells you what he hears and suddenly you can’t un-hear it. Think of ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’, with ‘young and sweet, only seventeen’ turning into ‘young and sweet, only seven teeth’.
The audio on this video is poor. I couldn’t clearly make out what the crowd was chanting. But it seemed unlikely that asylum seekers would be publicly demanding passports in this way. I slowed it down, and it sounded even less distinct. Yet sixty thousand had already seen the post, and hundreds were angrily commenting on the assumption that of course that’s what being said.
So I looked for context. The Irish Times report on the rally said a group called End Direct Provision Ireland was seeking an amnesty for 1,500 asylum seekers who have been in the process for longer than six months. They were asking for what’s called Stamp 4 temporary permission to live and work in Ireland.
With that in mind, I listened again. Even given the poor-quality audio, it now seemed overwhelmingly likely that the chant was ‘We want stamp 4’. The context fits perfectly. By contrast, the ‘passports’ caption seemed to be generating false outrage rather than conveying truth or understanding.
So what is a stamp 4? It allows certain non-EEA nationals to live and work in Ireland without a work permit. It is typically granted for two years, and can be renewed if the person continues to meet the criteria, which can include refugee or subsidiary protection status.
The Irish Times report quotes the organisers as saying their members deserved the opportunity to live without constant fear of deportation and to demonstrate their societal value: ‘We’re asking for a chance now to get out of limbo. To have the chance to contribute to the society that we now call home.’
Could I be fooling myself with my own confirmation bias? I checked further. I found a Facebook update from Honore Kamegni, former Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork, who was at the rally. His update begins: ‘Stop deportation! We want stamp 4!’ That surely settled the issue of what the chant was.
Seeking a stamp 4 is very different from demanding ‘We want passports!’ The post on X turned a request for a specific existing temporary permission into an unreasonable demand for citizenship now. Predictably, this provoked anger in people already inclined to be angry.
In real life, on all sides of most issues, most people are promoting what they sincerely believe to be best for society, whether they are correct or mistaken. Online discourse can create the opposite impression, as social media algorithms push the loudest and angriest voices to the top.
Whatever you think about the level of migration to Ireland, the difference between migration and asylum, and the impact of both on society, we should be able to discuss these questions with reason and empathy for everybody. This means focusing on how to resolve real problems, and refusing to abuse people simply because they see things differently from us.