BUREAUCRACY and a lack of cultural receptiveness among business chiefs are affecting the employment opportunities of highly qualified non-EU migrants, a Dublin-based Indian man has said.
MBA-holder Sylo Sam from Kerala in India – whose wife is a nurse at Dublin’s Mater Hospital – said he sent out 150 CVs and attended 20 job interviews, but the experience has made him opt for self-employment.
Sam, who earned an MBA (Masters in Business Admin-istration) in his homeland, said the fact the he needs to procure an “offer letter” from an employer before applying for work authorisation papers is putting employers off – added to the fact that his initial residency period is set by the State at two years.
“Companies have doubts, they think after two years will I leave?” he said. “Employers are not willing to take the headache.”
He added that, in his experience, even at interview stage, employers seem “sceptical” on the basis of cultural and national differences.
“One person asked me a question – is India like the Eastern European countries, in that you either go to the army or you go to the university,” he recalls, stating that the question inferred that going to university in India is “no big deal – that kind of an approach”.
He said skin colour and accent seem to also impact on interview panels, but added that given a few months, a non-EU migrant will be able to speak in a way that everyone can understand and in turn will be able to understand others.
He told Metro Eireann: “It is a serious issue. The Irish economy is losing skills. If a post-grad is working in Spar, the Irish economy is losing out. Forty per cent of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are migrants. There is a huge appetite among migrants for wealth creation. We are hard-working, and we can be jewels in the crown for the Irish economy.”
The Indian man, who lists consultancy work with the governments of India and Kerala State among his portfolio, arrived in Ireland in September 2006 to join his wife, who had been recruited to work here three months earlier. He added that he had applied for his MBA from India to be measured by the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland (NQAI) and that it had been found to be equal to an Irish MBA. Sam has since ventured into self-employment, having established Figfacts, an outsourcing services company.
In relation to the processing of work documents for spouses of certain categories of skilled non-EU workers, a spokesperson from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment told Metro Eireann: “There has been a large volume of applications to the department since the introduction of the new spousal work permit scheme earlier this year.
“The processing time has been reduced by 50 per cent and is currently five weeks approximately. There has been extra staff employed recently to deal with the applications and processing time should be reduced to three weeks in the near future.”
