Immigration policy correct, economist says

IRELAND’S policy on opening its doors to workers from the new EU member states has been the correct one but Europe’s overall immigration policy is a disaster, a conference heard yesterday.

In the five months following enlargement last year, far more people than expected - more than 30,000 - from the 10 countries to join the EU applied to work in Ireland, the conference on economic migration was told in Brussels.

This added to the gross national product of both Ireland and the migrants’ home countries, according to calculations by Professor Tito Boeri of Milan.

But Ireland was just one of four countries that opened its borders to workers, although, like Britain, it placed restrictions on welfare benefits.

Generally, the trend among EU governments has been to make it increasingly difficult for people to migrate to Europe from the rest of the world.

The result has been to increase illegal immigration and especially to put pressure on countries with more liberal rules.

“This has resulted in a race to the top in migration restrictions,” said Mr Boeri, who heads the economics department at Bocconi University in Milan.

He accused heads of EU governments of being hypocritical by pretending to be concerned about illegal migrants flooding their countries, but refusing to tackle the problem properly.

“Surveys show that a majority of Europe’s citizens are willing to allow Brussels to handle migration policy but national leaders will not agree. This may be because migration is an easy scapegoat for national problems.”

Meanwhile, Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin is due to launch his Employment Permits Bill today.