Non-nationals ‘permanent feature of society’

PEOPLE must ready themselves for having non-national workers as a permanent feature of Irish society, though numbers coming into the country may have to be limited, a trade union conference was told at the weekend.

Migrants were being treated as ‘temporary guest workers’ but all that was changing and new policies for managing migration would have to be developed, urged Dr Pauline Conroy, of the social research group, Ralaheen.

She told the SIPTU National Women’s Forum that primary school principals would have to get the resources to meet the educational needs of non-national children. Also, migrants of all ages would have to be given the opportunity to learn English to help them integrate into society.

“We must address the situation of a multi-ethnic Ireland. We don’t have management of migration, at present, only ad-hoc management,” Dr Conroy told 300 delegates.

Regarding the displacement of Irish workers by migrants in some job areas, she said there may have to be agreed limits to the number of migrants invited to work here. There should also be new categories of migrants, including those wishing to join their families and long-term residents, such as nurses.

Last year, 33,000 workers were invited here on work permits, 40% of them women.

Dr Conroy welcomed a discussion paper by Justice Minister Michael McDowell on migration and residency. She said it offered an opportunity to make submissions on what type of policies should be put in place and encouraged people to make submissions.

She also told the forum, in Tralee, Co Kerry, that more migrant women were working in Ireland than were usually counted, because undocumented or irregular working was generally excluded from official data.

The work of thousands of migrant women was often invisible in many ways, as they frequently worked in nationality-segregated groups after other workers have left the building, or after Irish workers had gone home at 5pm.

Dr Conroy said there were considerable restrictions on claims for social welfare by migrant workers. If a woman became ill, or pregnant, it could be disastrous for her.

“From our research, we’ve found that when migrant workers get into difficulties they are not aware of the wide range of free services available to them, as well as free information from citizen’s information centres,” she said.

SIPTU president Jack O’Connor called for the appointment of at least 75 labour inspectors to ensure employers complied with employment regulations. He said the current number of 21 inspectors was totally inadequate.

He also called for increased penalties on employers who broke the regulations and for far more resources for the labour inspectorate, which he felt should be moved from the Department of Trade and Enterprise to a new Department of Labour.