On 9 May 2026, the first annual conference of Asian & Irish Community Connect, themed “Speaking Up, Stepping In: Asian Communities in Ireland”, was held at Trinity College Dublin. The conference was co-organised with the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies and brought together discussions on participation, representation, intercultural exchange, social support, and public life for Asian communities in Ireland.

PhD researchers from the School of Social Work and Social Policy contributed to the afternoon breakout session, titled “Articulating Belonging: Asian Communities, Social Policy, and Public Life in the Island of Ireland”, focused on care, welfare, and belonging in Asian communities across the island of Ireland.

Three Asian Students

The speakers and presentation titles included:

Srimoyee Biswas
Conditional Belonging: Welfare Labour, Care, and Asian Presence Across Post-Colonial States

Haocheng Shi
Only-Child Families and Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA): A Transnational Lens from China’s One-Child Policy Generation to Chinese Communities in Ireland

Wenyu Li
Older Migrants in Ireland: Ageing, Care, and Well-being

Jianing Zhu
Speaking Up Through Care: Older Adults’ Experiences of Time Banking in China and Transferable Questions for Asian Communities in Ireland

The conference provided a valuable space for dialogue between researchers, community organisations, policy practitioners, and service providers. It also highlighted the school’s engagement with public scholarship, community-based conversations, and social policy issues across transnational and intercultural contexts.