Integration minister wants migrant entrepreneurs to be role models INTEGRATION Minister Conor Lenihan TD has said that Ireland needs “ethnic entrepreneurs and millionaires” to emerge as role models in their communities.
Speaking last Sunday at the launch of his proposal for an integration taskforce, he commented: “In Britain, there is a whole plethora of ethnic entrepreneurs and millionaires – we need more of these.”
He said that successful business people from minority backgrounds can be “very positive role models” in society, and that there is “a need to encourage a spirit of entrepreneurship”.
At present, the Equal Emerge project – which is backed by the European Social Fund, the Department of Enter-prise, Trade and Employment, and the Community Equal Initiative – tutors immigrants on the basic skills and requirements they need to establish businesses here. The project is expected to end this year. There is also an annual Ethnic Entrepreneur of the Year awards scheme – a Metro Eireann initiative which is supported by a number of high-profile companies and businesspeople.
Metro Eireann understands that as of yet, there are no specific plans from the new ministry to promote ethnic entrepreneurship, but one source confirmed it is an area that Minister Lenihan feels strongly about.
A spokesperson for the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs - the main department to which Minister Lenihan is attached - told Metro Eireann: “The development of ethnic entrepreneurship is an important element in any integration strategy.”
The spokesperson said Minister Lenihan “will be seeking to establish funding lines for general cross-cutting and seeding initiatives covering many aspects of integration” and that “specific immigrant-related funding in the areas of employment (including ethnic entrepreneurship), education, health, etc will also come, and indeed is already coming, from mainstream budgets in these areas.
“Through his commitment to cross-departmental co-operation, the minister will be seeking to ensure that adequate and appropriate funding to cover newcomers continues to be made available and co-ordinated across the full range of services.”
The integration ministry itself will have to wait until the Budget estimates are released towards the end of the year before it can begin sanctioning projects on a wider scale - and indeed to verify what other key departments will be setting aside for integration purposes.
One proposal that has been given the green light, however, is the establishment of the integration taskforce, announced last Sunday. Consisting of up to 12 members, who will be selected before the end of this year, the group will be tasked with issuing “hard recommendations” within 12 months of being appointed.
At last week’s press briefing, Minister Lenihan said the taskforce will consist of Irish and non-Irish people with expertise, knowledge or experience in the area of integration. The taskforce will be required to identify key issues affecting immigrant communities; consult widely with immigrants and Irish people; visit areas where immigrant populations are high to hear first-hand the experiences of Irish and non-Irish residents; examine previous research on integration; and finally, report back with recommendations.
Minister Lenihan said the taskforce “won’t stall Government decision-making” but instead will assist in the formulation of a medium to long-term plan on integration.
In response to a question from Metro Eireann on English language training for immigrants – and whether he would be waiting for the taskforce’s recommendations before acting on this issue – Minister Lenihan said that Howard Consulting has already been awarded a contract by the Department of Education to examine current provisions of English language training. That report is expected to be completed at the end of this year.
Minister Lenihan said he did not want “a third generational cycle of people not speaking English” and that it is “very important that English language provision meets the appetite” of immigrants working here.
He added that the Irish public seems to view the presence of immigrants as a short-term situation, but that this isn’t the reality. “A lot of people are nurturing the idea that it’s a brief phenomenon. That’s not the case. Ireland’s going to have to live with the concepts, notions and practical outcomes of integration for a long time to come.”
Asked by one journalist whether the Roma on the M50 roundabout had undermined the image of immigrants generally, he said: “I don’t want to instance the Roma… 97 per cent of non-Irish people are here on work permits… The debate is skewed, but I am not undermining the importance of the asylum issue.”
Minister Lenihan – who was flanked at the press conference by John Haskins (principal officer, Integration) and Paul Ryan (principal officer, Department of Education) – also announced that a forum on integration, along the lines of the Forum on Europe, would be established, and that “we hope to publish, before Christmas, a series of principles that will underpin policy in the area of integration”.
