The recent creation of a junior ministry for integration might be a step in the right direction. Having constructed immigration as a problem from the word go – ever since the ‘immigration turning point’ in 1996, when inward migration outstripped outward migration – this appointment seems to say that the Government now realises that immigrants are here to stay.
Three media reports published last week highlight items for the new minister’s agenda. Firstly, the NCCRI’s Philip Watt called for the payment of child benefit to those asylum seekers whose cases have been pending, in some cases, for five or more years, and who live in direct provision centres on a paltry allowance of 19.10 euro per adult and 9.60 euro per child per week, an allowance which has not been raised since 2001.
The children of asylum seekers are the only children in the State not entitled to the children’s allowance, paid even to migrant workers whose children do not live in the State. Asylum seekers are the poorest of the poor, and not being allowed to work perpetuates their dependency. I have been told that many work unofficially, which improves the relations between them and the local population, but the majority languish in the centres, their allowances not sufficient even to avail of high bus fares, doomed to a life of dependency.
The new minister would do well to reconsider their position, allowing them to work after six months, and paying them the children’s allowance – two different things, I know, but which will pull them out of their dire poverty trap and allow their families to have a basic standard of living.
A second report, by the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI), highlights the ongoing exploitation of migrant workers, particularly in domestic service, agriculture, hotel and catering. MRCI found that many workers who are becoming undocumented, having arrived legally with a work permit, are subject to dire exploitation.
In a separate report, the Irish Organisation for the Unemployed (INOU) – while declaring itself ‘avowedly non-racist’ – argues that unemployment for the most marginalised has not improved in recent years due to the arrival of migrant workers. While ‘not the fault of immigrants but of Irish society’, the INOU highlights the 10 per cent unemployment rate in some areas. The underlying story is that some Irish employers prefer to exploit migrants – some of whom, particularly if they become undocumented, agree to work longer hours for lesser pay.
The answer is not simply, as proposed by MRCI, with the Government funding the organisation to be better able to tackle migrant workers’ grievances – after all, being funded by the same State that discriminates against migrant workers and asylum seekers alike is not the total answer – but rather in a combined policy approach spearheaded by the new Minister for Integration, together with the Departments of Trade and Enterprise, Justice, and Social and Family Affairs.
Migrants are here to stay. Not only does the continuing growth in the economy depend on them (though underpaying them and making them work long hours, in conditions Irish people would no longer agree to, is not the answer) but they are also real human beings with lives, families, plans and hopes. An effective Labour Inspectorate which punishes employers who exploit migrant workers, while at the same time re-training marginalised Irish long term unemployed, as well as looking seriously at the sore issue of recognising the overseas qualifications of migrants, will go a long way to improving their lot, as would allowing asylum seekers to work and restoring their child allowance rights.
Dr Ronit Lentin is head of the MPhil in Ethnic and Racial Studies at the Department of Sociology at Trinity College Dublin. Her column appears fortnightly in Metro Eireann
