VISIT DUBLIN’S gay clubs, says Dil Wickremasinghe, and the intercultural mix will immediately stand out. “Go into Dragon or any of the gay bars and there’s more and more mixed couples – so many Filipinos and Africans, arms linked with an Irish lad.”
It’s “great to see”, continues Wickremasinghe, who is herself gay and originally from Sri Lanka. But it also poses questions for the present and the future: namely, whether the residency application system has streamlined procedures for gay immigrants who wish to apply to stay with a long-term resident or citizen here.
The short answer is that, at present, no specific system exists. Heterosexual spouses can apply for residency in Ireland on account of their marriage to a resident here, but same-sex couples hit stumbling blocks.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice confirmed that evidence of a gay relationship can be taken into account when assessing residency applications, but it would just be one ingredient to consider. The example referred to was of someone who was in Ireland, and applying for residency on account of their accumulation of immigration stamps – if that person also submitted evidence of a relationship, it would be a factor to consider along with other information, the spokesperson explained.
According to Moninne Grif-fith, director of Marriage Equality, the situation is ambiguous and needs addressing. “I do hear of couples being together for four years, and when they can show it, they can then get a stamp 4, but there’s no laws or written statements or anything you can go by,” she says.
The proposed Civil Partnership and Immigration, Residence and Protection bills will not resolve the situation, according to experts.
Dil Wickremasinghe, now working as an equality consultant, remembers her own experience when she came here with her Irish partner, Mo, who she had met in Bahrain.
“When we arrived in Ireland in 2000 we contacted various Government departments and immigration solicitors to understand what legal rights we had as a same-sex couple. We were particularly concerned how I being a non-EU National could remain in the country. The Government officials we spoke to were rather dismissive and bluntly declared ‘We don’t have laws for you people.’”
She had to frantically find an employer who could grant her a work permit – and only then was she on the pathway to residency. With work permits now thin on the ground, it is unclear what her situation would have been had she arrived nine years on.
Wickremasinghe and her partner were among the founders of Glue (Gay Lesbian Union Eire) and did encounter some understanding from officialdom as regards the situation. “In 2005, Glue met the Minister of Justice and was able to secure residency for a number of same-sex couples on the basis of their relationship. We were one of them,” she recalls.
It remains to be seen what these tough economic times – and dearth of the employment opportunities that previously kept people legally resident in Ireland – will have in store of Ireland’s growing population of intercultural gay couples. But so far, the signs are good. According to the Immigrant Council of Ireland, residency applications from those in relevant same-sex relationships have been receiving favourable decisions.
