Immigrants need better courses

THE Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) welcomes recent comments by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Brian Lenihan, that he wishes to address ‘unacceptable delays’ in the process migrants face in becoming Irish citizens.

We particularly welcome his comment that Ireland should welcome migrants who wish to become Irish citizens after a reasonable period of residency.

In relation to Mr Lenihan’s comment that migrants wishing to become citizens should be competent in the English (and possibly also the Irish) language, it has been the ICI’s experience that the vast majority of migrants with poor or no English language skills are very keen to learn the language.

One of the difficulties they face is the ad hoc provision of English language courses for adults. The ICI has been highlighting the need for a national programme of language courses for migrants from a non-English-speaking background for some time. We believe such courses should contain an ‘introduction to Irish society’ element.

The provision of language and introductory courses would help migrants integrate into Irish communities and provide workplace benefits such as the ability to better understand health and safety regulations, for example.

The ICI has commissioned research on language and introductory courses provided by governments overseas to migrants in their countries and we will be publicly launching the findings of the research soon.

We hope the Government can use this research to help develop best practice in this area for Ireland.

The ICI urges the Government to introduce English language and introductory courses for migrants as it implements immigration and integration policy reforms.

Denise Charlton

CEO Ruth Evans

Communications Officer

Immigrant Council of Ireland

2 St Andrew Street

Dublin 2