We need more information, greater clarity of objectives and, above all, a comprehensive public debate if we are to have new economic migration laws, according to Dr Martin Ruhs in an opinion piece in today's Irish Times. Dr Ruhs, author of an a Policy Institute 'Blue Book' on the topic, outlines various legislative changes that are proposed and mentions the fact that the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is to produce a policy paper shortly. He argues that the debate about managing the immigration and employment of non-EU nationals in Ireland needs to be framed in terms of the following four questions :
What have been the labour immigration flows and policies in Ireland? What are the consequences of international labour migration to Ireland? What should be the principles and objectives of Ireland’s labour immigration policy? What policies are best suited to achieve these objectives?
It's clear from a relatively recent paper published jointly by the ESRI and the European Migration Network that not enough hard information is known in terms of numbers, earnings, labour activities and education and skill levels of our immigrant population. It's important that immigration policy does not get determined by economic factors alone. The demand of the roaring Celtic Tiger to be fed continuously with more and more labour units is already distorting the framework of the childcare debate, as I've pointed out as nauseum. I get the impression that the Employers lobby are happy to see more immigrants as part of the solution to the problem of labour supply.
This is something that will effect the concept of citizenship in Ireland and how this applies in practice. Most migrants will probably be here for good and so we will have to be clear what rights and duties they will have as citizens or what kind of status they're to have. We also need to go beyond a facile multiculturalism and look to see what good practice can be learned from other countries that have experienced this in the past and also what mistakes should be avoided. It is vital that attention is given to the impact immigration may have on existing Irish communities that are experiencing relative deprivation, poor housing and a general lack of public services.
Economic migration is in a sense a re-balancing of the scales of justice in global terms. We must make sure that the presence of immigrants does not give rise to a surly and insular politics tinged with racism and xenophobia. It's unlikely to happen but it's not inconceivable that a natavist, populist, pro-welfare, culturally conservative political movement could gain ground if things were to be handled badly. There's no room for complacency here and we need to fashion an immigration policy that looks beyond the, perhaps temporary, needs of the economy.
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