It is well recognised that there is a strong relationship between economic performance and migration. Ireland knows this first hand, perhaps better than most. At times of recession, such as during the 1950s, and again in the 1980s, Ireland experienced sharp rises in unemployment and accompanying rises in the numbers of Irish people seeking jobs abroad. The economic decline in the 1950s was in fact so severe, and the numbers leaving our shores so high, that Ireland’s population fell to its lowest ever level in 1961. The economic recovery of the 1970s saw many Irish people return, making the numbers arriving much greater than those leaving and resulting in Ireland’s population growing once again.
Recruitment
It is no surprise therefore that the Celtic Tiger of recent years has been accompanied by net inward migration, as Ireland has become an attractive country in which to seek employment. In addition, the scale of the economic boom has been such that ongoing skills and labour shortages have necessitated both the Irish government and private business to actively recruit abroad. The scale of increase of recruitment from overseas has been dramatic. In 1996, 6,000 work permits were issued in Ireland. By 2003 this figure had risen to over 47,500. This trend is set to continue. The most recent Central Statistics Office forecast is that Ireland will need 50,000 immigrants a year over the next 12 years if economic growth is to be maintained.
Ethnicity
Both the scale and the change in composition of migration in recent years have undoubtedly had a significant impact on Ireland’s population. At present however it is not possible to provide a comprehensive overview of ethnic diversity in Ireland. There are two reasons for this: the absence of an ethnicity question in the last Census in 2002 and rapid changes in inward migration, particularly since the EU expansion in 2004. The 2006 Census which has just been conducted did include an ethnicity question for the first time which will give a much fuller picture of our ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. According to one estimate, however, the share of foreign born persons living in Ireland rose from 6% in 1991 to over 10% in 2002, a share of non-nationals that surpasses those of Great Britain and France, both countries with much longer immigration histories. While some have disputed the accuracy of this figure, it is clear that, in a very short period of time, Ireland has become a country of ethnic diversity. It is also clear that, for a country whose history has been dominated by mass emigration, inward migration continues to pose significant challenges for government agencies and policy makers alike.
Europe
The European Union obviously forms an important part of the context within which Ireland’s current immigration policy is being formed. In the context of labour migration, two particular features of Ireland’s relationship with the European Union are worthy of note.
Schengen
The first is that Ireland is not a party to the Schengen arrangements that allow for the freer movement of people across Member States’ borders. The Schengen arrangements, which took effect for a limited number of Member States in 1995, were incorporated into the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997, and now apply to a greater or lesser extent in 13 of the 15 member states that formed the European Union prior to the enlargement. The Schengen arrangements were also a prerequisite for the ten new accession states that joined in 2004 and are a condition for all future entrants.
Opt-out
However, when Great Britain opted out of Schengen, insisting on the necessity of maintaining its own border controls, Ireland chose to follow suit. The main reason for Ireland’s opt-out was to preserve the Common Travel Agreement with Great Britain. This Common Travel Agreement allows British and Irish citizens to travel freely between the two countries without having to carry a passport and has been in place since the early 1950s. Because of the Common Travel Agreement it is not seen as feasible for Ireland to adopt the Schengen agreements without a British decision to do likewise. For Ireland to do so would necessitate the imposition of full border controls between the Great Britain and Ireland, including between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Long-term residents
In the context of labour migration, Schengen, however, did not confer the right for long-term residents to move between Member States for work, study and other reasons. The Long Term Residents Directive introduced in 2006 now confers this right on non-EU nationals who are also long term residents. Immigrants without long term residency status however continue to require visas for travel between EU countries. Significantly, Ireland is not participating in the Long Term Residents Directive.
Accession state nationals
The second issue worthy of note is the fact that the Irish government made a very significant decision in the context of the EU enlargement by granting accession state nationals the right to live and work in Ireland. After accession on May 1st 2004, 40 million new potential employees thus acquired the right to work in Ireland. Only Great Britain and Sweden likewise granted accession state nationals immediate access to their labour markets. All other EU Member States imposed transitional measures, restricting such access for a maximum period of seven years. More recently, on May 1st 2006, Spain, Finland, Greece and Portugal removed these transitional barriers on workers from the new member states.
Uncertainty
In 2002, the five countries with the greatest number of work permit holders in Ireland were Latvia, Lithuania, Philippines, Poland and Romania. Together these countries constituted over 40% of all work permit holders in that year. Following enlargement, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland became full members of the European Union, while Romania as a candidate country is due for entry in 2007. Thus the EU enlargement created a context of large uncertainty for Ireland.
The European Economic Area
As a member of the European Union, Ireland’s immigration policies distinguish between EEA and non-EEA nationals. Citizens of the EEA, which comprises the European Union plus Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland, have the unrestricted right to live and work in Ireland. Non-EEA nationals need employment permits to do so.
Green paper
In January 2005, the European Commission launched its Green Paper on an EU Approach to Managing Economic Migration aimed at beginning a process of debate within the European Union on a common framework of rules across the European Union for admitting economic migrants. In Ireland’s response to the Green Paper, two features of the Irish Government’s strategy on economic migration are clearly spelled out. The first is that the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which has responsibility for economic migration policy, is actively encouraging employers to recruit low skilled labour from within the European Union. In other words, it is government policy to discourage low skilled workers from outside the EEA from coming to Ireland and that future demand for labour from outside the EEA will be mainly in high skills areas. The second feature is that the present strategy envisages a twin track approach, comprising ‘a permanent migration system with a primary focus of attracting skilled migrants to Ireland which will select people as potential citizens,’ and ‘a fast-track scheme of temporary workers based on sponsorship by employers.’
Legislation
Two pieces of domestic legislation on immigration are currently making their way through the legislative process. A discussion document was published by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in April 2005 setting out its proposals for an Immigration and Residence Bill and inviting responses thereon. A second Bill, the Employment Permits Bill 2005 was published in June 2005 by Minister of Enterprise Trade and Employment. In the absence of a comprehensive legislative basis for many of the current procedures, both Bills aim to clarify and streamline all administrative procedures governing immigration and place them on a statutory basis. In addition each Bill proposes a number of changes, each broadly indicative of the policy direction that has been emerging to date. In summary, both Bills are in keeping with the adoption of a twin track approach to immigration, differentiating between highly skilled migrants for whom ‘incentives’ need to be offered on the one hand, such as access to long term residency and family reunification, and low skills workers who will have no such access on the other.
Human rights
A differentiation of rights, such as access to long-term residency and to family re-unification, on the basis of educational qualifications and skills is evident in current policy thinking. That long term residency and family reunification are being seen primarily in the context of their importance in attracting highly skilled migrants, and not in any broader human rights framework continues to be the focus of much attention by civil society groups in Ireland.
Dr Ian Hughes, TASC – Think Tank for Action on Social Change, Dublin
For more on TASC’s work see www.tascnet.ie.
This article was published in Politeia Newsletter 42 - June 2006