Migrants ‘in limbo’ over citizenship

MIGRANTS who have worked hard to establish a life for themselves and their families here are increasingly concerned about the security of their immigration status, a report has found.

Living in Limbo, which was carried out by the Immigrant Council of Ireland and Nasc, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre, Cork, documents the need for reform of Ireland’s process for granting citizenship. It says our rate of refusing applications is “exceptionally high” and the amount of time taken to make a decision about those applications is “truly extraordinary”.

More than 300 migrants took part in the research, which includes 22 case studies of migrants who have applied for, or intend to apply for, citizenship.

It shows applications sometimes wait years to be processed — up to 4½ years in one research participant’s case.

According to the report, migrants have developed careers and businesses, they have families and friends, their children may have been born here or are citizens and they have a deep sense of connection here. However, while other countries encourage migrants to become citizens in order to share those countries’ values, the report says Ireland’s policy could be seen to be using the process and its injustices as a way to prevent people becoming citizens.

Case studies in the report show that a person can be refused citizenship simply for having points on their driving license.

Rejection of a citizenship application is unlikely to mean that the person concerned has to leave the country. They will usually be well established and will continue to be able to legally live here.

However, as the report points out, what the rejection of their application is saying is that the person is not fully recognised as a member of the community. “The rejected applicant will not have a right to vote in national elections. They might have children who have been educated in Ireland but who will be unable to progress to third-level education because, even if they performed outstandingly at school, they would be faced with prohibitive fees as an ‘international student’. In this situation, the children of unsuccessful applicants also pay a penalty and are denied the opportunity to reach their full potential.”