US ambassador encourages Irish reform efforts
Friday, November 13th, 2009The US ambassador to Ireland has encouraged Irish efforts to urge the US to undertake comprehensive immigration reform, according to a report in the Mayo News.
Speaking at an event entitled “Transatlantic Migration in Irish America�, held at the Castlebar campus of GMIT, Dan Rooney said:
“I think there are opportunities but American immigration policies have to do with everybody. On the south, we have Mexico and Central American, on the north, we have Canada and on the east we have Ireland. We can’t write a policy just for one but I will say this with regards to politics, you have a lot of friends in Congress. I would tell the Irish to go up the Hill and get Congress on their side. They will write up the bill but it will have to be a uniform bill – but that doesn’t mean they won’t look at a special situationâ€?.
Ambassador Rooney’s reference to “a special situation� is intriguing. There has been some controversy in Irish and Irish-American circles over whether Irish activists were lobbying for comprehensive immigration reform, which would alleviate the plight of all undocumented immigrants in the US, or a special deal for the Irish.
Current political realities in the US would seem to rule out the kind of special deals for the Irish that the Donnelly and Morrison visas guaranteed in the 1980s and 1990s. With over ten million undocumented in the US, and the Irish only comprising an estimated 50,000 of them, such a special deal would clearly be unfair.
While the emphasis, in fact, has seemed to be on getting a comprehensive deal, there have also been some efforts toward a solution that would give Irish people increased access to legal work opportunities in the US in the future. The 12-month Ireland/USA Intern Work and Travel Programme announced some months ago seemed to be in that spirit, as do efforts aimed at securing a bilateral trade agreement similar to the one Australia has with the US, which allows for some visas. Neither of these measures would assist the currently undocumented, however; the importance of them lies in ensuring a continuing strong link between Ireland and the US.
The question of whether Irish-America has lost its influence in American politics has also been a subject of debate in Irish-American and Irish media, particularly since the death of Senator Ted Kennedy –Ireland’s most stalwart friend in Congress. Dan Rooney’s comments that “you have a lot of friends in Congress� will perhaps reassure some.
Related web pages:
- Mayo News: Irish still have opportunities in America – Ambassador
- Crosscare Migrant Project: 12-Month Work and Travel Visa to USA
Global Economic Forum East – China turns to its diaspora
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009China is the latest country that it will turn to its diaspora for assistance with economic strategy and global networking. Â The first World Chinese Economic Forum will be held in Malaysia on November 16 and 17, themed “Building Business Linkages, Charting New Frontiers”.
It is aimed at leaders in government, professional bodies, educational institutions and think tanks, as well as entrepreneurs, professionals and investors from  around the globe, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the US, UK, France, Switzerland, Pakistan and China.
Among the organisers are the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, a non-profit independent think tank in Malaysia focusing on international business partnerships, leadership, strategic thinking, and public policy studies.
The sessions look dynamic and practical, exploring entrepreneurship, sustainable development, financing, real estate, and regional and global development. One talk is entitled “China and ASEAN (Association of Southeasat Asian Nations) – Partnering for an Asian Century”.
Among the more interesting diaspora-related panels:
- “Leveraging on the World Chinese Muslim Network – building a new silk route from The Middle East to China”. Focusing on the tens of millions of Chinese Muslims in China, throughout Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
- “The Chinese Diaspora Worldwide – Entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility: Key challenges ahead”. Examining the role of the Chinese diaspora in the economic development of other nations and ways to channel that energy for maximum social benefit.
- “Global Chinese Entrepreneurship – the rise of young Taipans”. Focusing on the younger entrepreneurs, both Chinese-born and from the second generation.
With so many emerging efforts to engage the diasporas of various nations around the world, it’s good that Ireland has been upping its game in this respect. Our huge diaspora gives us a head start in engaging with our citizens abroad, and we have numerous local, regional and industry-based networks aimed at assisting the Irish at home and abroad in maximising their business efforts – but it’s clear that we are not alone in our ability to galvanise a global force of entrepreneurs and investors for our national economic benefit. And with the size of the global Chinese community estimated at between 30 and 120 million, a strong network will have a powerful impact.
Unlike the Global Irish Economic Forum, which was overly restricted in being limited to only 180 participants, this one is open to anyone willing to part with the $800 registration fee. Â Perhaps some of our global Irish entrepreneurs with Chinese and Asian links might be interested in attending – and with the Chinese and Irish diasporas being two of the world’s largest, joint networking could mean profound mutual benefits around the globe and at home.
Download the World Chinese Economic Forum brochure.
Tweets from Global Irish Economic Forum
Friday, October 9th, 2009I’ve just been looking at ways of backing up my Twitter postings. From the archives, this is a roundup of my Tweets from the Global Irish Economic Forum held in Farmleigh on September 18 and 19th:
Martin: “set Ireland’s relationship with global community on a new exciting course” – looking forward to seeing results. #gief –Â 3:57 PM Sep 19th from web
Martin says #gief caught the public’s imagination.. Not sure it’s caught the Irish media’s – will get better press outside of Ireland #gief –Â 3:53 PM Sep 19th from web
McW thanks Joe Hackett of Irish Abroad Unit and all at DFA for organising. –Â 3:50 PM Sep 19th from web
Shame that this conference was so closed – both to press and other willing participants! 180 people out of diaspora of 70 million #gief –Â 3:49 PM Sep 19th from web
Martin, McW say it should be open – conscious of those watching online #gief –Â 3:48 PM Sep 19th from web
Dubai-based person suggests keep the discussion going on small website solely for participants, with password. Open it up, I say! #gief –Â 3:47 PM Sep 19th from web
@IrishArtsCenter – I agree. Can’t beat the dynamism. No twitter presence here yet, if you mean gief. –Â 3:45 PM Sep 19th from web
Have to send our politicians abroad on St Patrick’s Day – they get access. –Â 3:44 PM Sep 19th from web
Israel again: Birthright programmes – aim educational programmes at younger than college. McW makes analogy w/ gaeltacht summers #gief –Â 3:37 PM Sep 19th from web
3rd-gen Irish-American: self-selection of culture-carriers. Not pulled back to any centralised entity. Pay attention to next gen. #gief –Â 3:35 PM Sep 19th from web
Malaysian-Irish business organisation founder: diaspora in reverse. Pay more attention to those connections! #gief –Â 3:33 PM Sep 19th from web
Hartnett: need people in this room to get in the game re internet. share ideas, thoughts #gief –Â 3:30 PM Sep 19th from web
Martina Newell McLoughlin: need to get past tribalism. make sure we’re risk-averse. visionaries and dreamers will take us there #gief –Â 3:29 PM Sep 19th from web
comment about Irish-American bus driver dad – let’s hear it for the bus-driver daddies. Mine was one too! #gief –Â 3:26 PM Sep 19th from web
O’Brien: applause for comment that we need a yes vote – Lisbon “the elephant in the room” –Â 3:24 PM Sep 19th from web
Martin pulls back from Israel model – “we’re not in that space” #gief –Â 3:22 PM Sep 19th from web
McWilliams raises question of diaspora bonds – to finance some of these projects – cash ringfenced. Israel model again #gief –Â 3:21 PM Sep 19th from web
McColgan: calls for umbrella website that Team Ireland speaks with one voice, wants “best website in world”. #gief –Â 3:19 PM Sep 19th from web
Martin asks for feedback from Asia, Russia, other places with no embassies – how to harness diaspora? O’Brien says internet #gief –Â 3:15 PM Sep 19th from web
Martin coming in on culture point: we’re world-class at that. “We don’t support it enough internationally, to be blunt about it.” #gief –Â 3:09 PM Sep 19th from web
applause for dermot desmond on that one. #gief –Â 3:06 PM Sep 19th from web
Dermot Desmond: How can we monetise our culture? Should build greatest university in world for performing arts #gief –Â 3:05 PM Sep 19th from web
Commentator: outcome should be clear identification of key strengths and then go execute them #gief –Â 3:03 PM Sep 19th from web
McWilliams: Ireland is recharging battery for the Irishness of the diaspora #gief –Â 3:01 PM Sep 19th from web
Hartnett uncomfortable with term “diaspora” – “You feel like you’re a little alien. I’m from Limerick.” #gief –Â 2:55 PM Sep 19th from web
Casey: international support structure for people going abroad should be developed – done locally already -what kind of platform? #gief –Â 2:53 PM Sep 19th from web
much talk of raising the game #gief –Â 2:51 PM Sep 19th from web
Martin: looking for sustainable global Irish network – #gief –Â 2:50 PM Sep 19th from web
O’Brien: use Israeli model for soft power in US, open more embassies, better resource Enterprise Ireland #gief –Â 2:43 PM Sep 19th from web
O’Brien – need 10-20 year plan to connect with 70 million of diaspora – with culture at the heart. IF diaspora strategy rprt template #gief –Â 2:40 PM Sep 19th from web
Panel: Micheal Martin, American Ireland Fund, entrepreneur Liam Casey, Digicel chair Denis O’Brien, ITLG John Hartnett #gief –Â 2:38 PM Sep 19th from web
Start of final session: McWilliams explains “Jack Charlton theory of economics” #gief –Â 2:32 PM Sep 19th from web
Emigration has provided a “base” for creation of “some sort of formal structure” – “what was a weakness becomes a base”: Swanson #gief –Â 1:42 PM Sep 19th from web
Swanson assumes since government “went to trouble” of bringing everyone here “they’ll take some good order of what they’re hearing”: #gief –Â 1:39 PM Sep 19th from web
Dennis Swanson, Fox Pres: Culture discussion panel this morning was “passionate” – “Culture always has to fight for its place” #gief –Â 1:37 PM Sep 19th from web
@janeruffino suspect the closed discussions may be franker than #gief participants are saying publicly. –Â 1:34 PM Sep 19th from web
Going out in hope of getting informal updates from participants as they break for lunch. #gief –Â 12:52 PM Sep 19th from web
Entertaining take on #gief and our “seriously serious” times from Indo: http://url.ie/2gql –Â 12:08 PM Sep 19th from web
3 breakout groups now: Innovation island, Promoting Brand Ireland, Ireland’s image abroad – what role can new media play? #gief –Â 10:40 AM Sep 19th from web
Back in Farmleigh – no open forum till panel at 2:30: Ireland and Diaspora: harnessing a unique resource. David McWilliams moderating #gief –Â 10:37 AM Sep 19th from web
Leaving Farmleigh now – blog post with quick roundup of some participants’ thoughts on day http://url.ie/2gnr #gief –Â 7:09 PM Sep 18th from web
Blog post – some initial thoughts on Global Irish Economic Forum – http://url.ie/2gn0 — #gief –Â 5:38 PM Sep 18th from web
@janeruffino I agree on importance of looking internally as well! –Â 2:41 PM Sep 18th from web
@janeruffino I think people have left in past due to frustration, yes – and also Ireland has been utterly dismissive of diaspora in past –Â 2:40 PM Sep 18th from web
@janeruffino – I hear you. I think it’s an attitude many in diaspora would have faced in the past. Remains to be seen if it will change. –Â 2:34 PM Sep 18th from web
@janeruffino Interesting question as to whether desire for wisdom of Irish diaspora is based on more than its value as economic unit –Â 2:25 PM Sep 18th from web
“We need your help defining economic opportunities” – Taoiseach #gief –Â 2:21 PM Sep 18th from web
“start of important new phase in our relationship with Irish people across the world” – Taoiseach #gief –Â 2:19 PM Sep 18th from web
taoiseach: giving assertion of Article 2 a “renewed impetus” this weekend #gief –Â 2:13 PM Sep 18th from web
Incorporating North – Martin and Cowen have referred to 6 million on island of Ireland – with island at centre of 70 million pop #gief –Â 2:10 PM Sep 18th from web
Taoiseach: Diaspora “part of our history, part of our nation – the new article two of our constitution confirms that” #gief –Â 1:30 PM Sep 18th from web
Taoiseach says Global Irish Forum not just a weekend – “a structured dialogue” with diaspora on “ongoing basis” #gief –Â 1:29 PM Sep 18th from web
Kingsley Aikins on diaspora strategy, Global Irish Economic Forum in Irish Times: http://url.ie/2gi3 #gief –Â 1:43 AM Sep 18th from web
NY Daily News lauds New York Irish Center’s senior programme
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009The New York Daily News carries a great profile of the senior citizen programme at the New York Irish Center in Long Island City. The programme brings together people from Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan for lunch every week. They get company, a hot meal donated by one of a dozen restaurants on a rotating basis, and referrals to social and medical programmes when they need it.
“Many are widows and widowers,” says Sean Mackin, one of the founders of the New York Irish Center. “Many have adult children who have moved away, and so they are alone now in the big city, living in rent-controlled apartments in once predominantly Irish neighborhoods. Now other new immigrants have moved in looking for the same American Dream. But many of the tens of thousands of New York Irish seniors can’t communicate with their new foreign-speaking neighbors. They feel isolated. Alienated. So when Father Colm Campbell opened here four years ago, word spread fast.”
The center also runs a Senior Help Line, which runs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 am to noon. It’s at (877) 997-5777. The Senior Help Line was set up with a grant from the Irish government.
Columnist Denis Hamill lauds the programme, saying, “There is nothing else like this place in all of Queens. Or New York. It deserves a hundred thousand welcomes in return.”
Programmes for Irish seniors, while long-established in Britain, have been growing in importance in the US recently. There is an increasing awareness of the need to fight isolation in the generation of immigrants who arrived in the 1950s and 1960s. New York’s Aisling Irish Center and the Emerald Island Immigration Center also run programmes for Irish seniors, and run the Senior Helpline as a joint project with the Long Island City center. The Ireland Funds recently announced they would be expanding their “Forgotten Irish” funding programme, which began in Britain, to the US.
Related webpages:
- Daily News: L.I.C. Irish Center a Bright Spot for Seniors
- New York Irish Center
- Senior Helpline Information
- Ireland Funds – Forgotten Irish Campaign
Commentator: Irish don’t get it – Israel gives back to diaspora
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009Here’s an interesting perspective on recent Irish outreach to the diaspora – in an article on the Jerusalem Post, commentator Rob Brown says Ireland doesn’t get what makes the Israeli diaspora different.
The central distinction, says the former media editor of The Independent in London, is that Ireland simply isn’t the hub for its diaspora in the way that Israel is for the global Jewish community:
Since the foundation of the Free State in 1922, there has been no great ingathering of the sons and daughters of Erin – not even after Ireland got rich in recent decades and could no longer plead poverty as an excuse. A recent head of state, Mary Robinson, kept a light burning for emigrants in a window of the presidential palace in Phoenix Park, but that was a purely symbolic gesture. There have been no dramatic airlifts of frightened Irish emigrants out of Africa or anywhere else, and generations of Irishmen have never prayed: “Next year in Dublin!”
Sure, if they’ve downed a few too many whiskeys, they might refer fondly to the “oul’ sod.” But they don’t regard Ireland as the center, the spring, the source from whence they came. The Republic of Ireland isn’t their Promised Land.
He says the Global Irish Economic Forum seems “a smart business move”, but adds “there’s a whole lot more to the Israeli relationship with Jews around the globe than just that”. Jews have a real home in Israel:
The Jewish state is every Jew’s guaranteed place of refuge, and seeks to serve as the center of a revived Jewish civilization. This state doesn’t yell at Jews, as Bob Geldof famously yelled at the whole world during the first Band Aid telethon: “Just give us your f***ing money!”
The Jewish state doesn’t simply get from, but gives to, Jews around the world. If the Irish don’t get that, even they don’t really get Israel.
Brown is touching on a painful truth here: for most of its history, Ireland turned its back on our emigrants. It was always happy to take the money – whether it was from remittances, Irish-American-influenced foreign investment, or tourist dollars – but traditionally Irish people in Ireland didn’t seem to be that interested in discovering what the Irish abroad might like to get back from “the old country”.
When it achieved prosperity, the government did make an attempt to assist emigrants in dire straits around the world, particularly in Britain; the 2002 Task Force on Policy Regarding Emigrants was a serious new departure as Ireland took responsibility for the welfare of its citizens abroad. But Ireland has never seriously posited itself as a homeland for the diaspora, and the relationship between Ireland and those who live abroad is fraught with tension.
Many in Ireland seem uninterested in the experience of the Irish abroad, and it’s not unusual for returning emigrants or visiting Irish-Americans to pick up on less-than-warm undertones to the welcome. Recent newspaper articles by Terry Prone and Kevin Meyers highlight the way the Irish elite often responds to Irish communities abroad with gaping incomprehension.
In recent decades Ireland has even tightened the ability of the global Irish to live and work in Ireland: it was only in the 1980s that the right to claim Irish citizenship was taken from most of those whose ancestry stretched back to great-grandparents – I don’t know why this was done, but it’s ironic that it was around the same time that Irish politicians were coming to the US looking for American visas for the Irish undocumented – a mission that was greatly assisted by the Irish-American community.
There has been a lot of great thinking about redefining the relationship between Ireland and the global Irish lately, but Brown’s point about the importance of giving to the diaspora is a good reminder of how much more effective our efforts could be if we think more about what Ireland can offer to the diaspora.
Read Brown’s full article at JerusalemPost.com:  Calling All Countrymen.
Terry Prone: Diaspora “a weird lot”
Friday, October 2nd, 2009PR maven Terry Prone is not the most astute analyst of diaspora relations.
Cleverly coining a new phrase, “diasporation”, in response to the recent Global Irish Economic Forum, Ms Prone declares that all attempts to look to the Irish abroad for any wisdom to guide us out of this crisis are doomed to failure.
The reason? The Irish diaspora are “a weird lot”. Sure there are some Irish millionaire philanthropists who can be reliably counted on to cough up the cash. But the rest of them? No use at all.
“The rest of the diaspora is a write off and always has been. One of the best histories of the emigrant Irish makes the point that whereas Italians and other Europeans who, through poverty, had to emigrate to the United States always planned to get home as soon as they made a few bob, the Irish concentrated on singing miserable songs filled with homesickness while staying in Detroit or Dakota or downtown Manhattan.”
Ms Prone seems to forget that Ireland’s economic boom is of rather late vintage. When there was a need for emigrant labour in the 1990s, the Irish did come back – by the hundreds of thousands. What did an Irish person have to return to, in say, 1870?
And as for remittances, Ms Prone seems to think they are the object of folklore:
And, while we’ve all heard the stories of envelopes coming to our great-grandparents with the few bob from the emigrant son or daughter allowing the folks at home to put in a toilet instead of visiting the local field, the fact is that a huge proportion of those who left used their emigration to break all ties with folks from home.
Proving nicely the old adage that eaten bread is soon forgotten, Ms Prone doesn’t seem to realise that millions of pounds in remittances were reaching Irish homes as lately as the 1960s. But then actual facts don’t seem her forte. This comes from the Supporting the Irish Abroad website:
In 1961 the education budget for Ireland was fourteen million pounds, that year emigrants remittances that could be calculated form official sources came to thirteen and a half million.
If we owe the Irish emigrants of the past anything – and we do – surely it must begin with remembering their sacrifices and what they gave to the Irish at home.
But not for Ms Prone, who clearly resents the Irish diaspora for committing the sin of sentimentality while keeping their money in their pockets. They should visit more, she insists – even as Irish-born people realise that it’s cheaper to holiday just about anywhere else. Â And perhaps worst of all, they don’t buy the shamrock-themed tat that she tries to help Irish marketers shill.
As a corrective, here’s what the 2002 report of the government’s Task Force on Policy Regarding Emigrants has to say:
We owe much to our emigrants. Many of them helped their families who remained behind through generous remittances sent home from their hard earned incomes. In recent years, the establishment of voluntary funding organisations abroad and the personal generosity of individual Irish people who have achieved success, notably in the US, have led to the investment of large sums of money in Ireland. Moreover, people who returned to Ireland having gained experience abroad, have contributed significantly to the country through learning and innovation. The Task Force acknowledges this debt and recognises the sacrifices made by generations of emigrants to the economic benefit of Ireland.
Read Ms Prone’s article:
Herald.ie: Don’t rely on the Diaspora to rescue us
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