Message: We need to reform our own immigration laws

During the St. Patrick’s Day ceremonials in Washington, Enda Kenny spoke to the US President, Barack Obama, about the plight of illegal Irish immigrants in the United States. And he was right to do so. There are real and sometimes tragic human dramas, bubbling under the surface, in the lives of those citizens of the Republic who set off to make a new life for themselves in America, including thousands of younger emigrants, who left Paddy’s green shamrock shore over the past decade or so.

You can, of course, say that they knew what they were getting themselves into. Back in the 1980s, when the last major wave of illegals left this country, people were relatively innocent of the implications of going on a holiday, or toting a J1 Visa, and failing to return home. But there has been a huge amount of publicity in the intervening years about the Irish illegals and what became of them; the extent to which their lives were complicated and in many cases blighted by their hidden status; and the extent to which they lost contact with everyone back home because they couldn’t leave the US and hope to get back in again.

But the economic collapse in Ireland, triggered in 2007, forced a new generation into the same trap. People – most of them in their twenties – went, thinking that it would be for a short time. Two or three years later they looked around and realised that they were in it for the long haul, whether that had been the original intention or not.

There are currently an estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish in the United States. Many of these are in their thirties and forties. Some of them have been there for a long time. They have bought houses. Started families. Set up businesses. Others, most of them in their twenties still, travelled more recently. For all of these Irish emigrants, the reality is the same: unless they can haul themselves out of the trap of illegality they will forever remain hostages to fortune. And they will have to behave like criminals or fugitives, making sure that they don’t take the risk of going home to attend weddings, bar mitzvahs (he joked) or funerals.

The Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform has been carrying out a campaign on behalf of our illegals. A bill has been crafted in the US Senate, which aims to increase the number of visas issued to Irish applicants. But there has been considerable opposition to the initiative, on the basis that any form of discrimination in immigration is wrong.

While it is small in global terms, the number of Irish illegals is high as a proportion (over 1%) of the total Irish population. In terms of the likelihood of being granted a visa, under the current regime, the figures are stark. In 2013, one million green cards were issued in the US. Only 2,000 of these went to individuals of Irish origin. Meanwhile in the Diversity Visa Program, in operation since 1995, Irish applicants have received just 2,800 of a total of 500,000 visas. It is a tiny allocation for a country which has traditionally had such close ties with the United States – a place where 20% of the population claim historic connections with Ireland.

“If the Irish antecedents of Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan were trying to enter the United States today,” the Chairman of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, and publisher of the Irish Voice, Niall O’Dowd, told the Senate Committee, “they would have to do so illegally.

“Without immigration reform,” O’Dowd added, “the Irish-born community in the United States will no longer exist, and one of the greatest contributors to the success of this nation will be no more. Our neighbourhoods are disappearing, our community organisations are in steep decline, our sporting and cultural organisations are deeply affected by the lack of legal immigration.”

He has a point. The reality is that the door is effectively almost closed to Irish emigrants seeking to make a new life in this part of America. Many people will recall Mary Harney’s famous observation when she was Tánaiste in the Fianna Fáil/PD coalition government during the noughties: Ireland is closer to Boston than to Berlin. Well, not any more. Irish people can go and live and work in Berlin unrestricted. That is one of the great achievements of the EU. But it is almost impossible for them to emigrate to, and work legally in, the United States.

Of course, this is part of a much wider debate about immigration in the US. In particular, there is an understandable concern that no form of discrimination against Mexicans and other Central and South Americans seeking work visas should be tolerated. From that vantage point, the Irish have no more right to expect visas than the Mexicans or the Chinese. On the other hand, there is a legitimate case to be made that the links created throughout the 19th Century in particular give Ireland a special status, which should be reflected in contemporary US immigration laws.

That, however, is only one side of the story on immigration. Surely, it is fundamentally hypocritical for us to be asking for special treatment for Irish illegals in the US, while at the same time cynically and aggressively hounding immigrants – whether from Nigeria, Albania or Brazil – who are in this country illegally?

It is one of the marks of a genuinely civilised society how it treats those who are unfortunate enough to have to leave their own place of birth and who end up on a different continent, desperate to put down roots so that they can try to establish a life, and maybe even rear a family, in relative safety. Sadly, Ireland’s record in relation to this in recent years has been appalling. Refugees are dumped in what are effectively camps. They are not allowed to work. They are given a pitiful stipend on which to live. And, while the delays in the system are not as bad as previously, the bureaucracy through which applicants have to wade is still far too slow and cumbersome, ensuring that it is often years before an application is properly processed.

And, of course, far too high a proportion of applications are turned down. The effect is to make a mockery of Irish special pleading in the US.

The bottom line is that we need to get our own house in order. The US authorities may take Enda Kenny's pleas on behalf of Irish illegals seriously – and I hope they do. But we need to extend the same kind of hand of friendship to our own illegal immigrants. So when is the reform of the system here going to start?

As the man said, I wouldn’t hold my breath...