Offer undocumented citizenship, says prominent priest
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008Fr Theodore Hesburgh, president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame in the United States, is featured in the September 30 edition of Wall Street Journal, reflecting on his life of scholarship and activism. He proposes a very succinct and simple answer to the problem of the undocumented.
When asked the question, “Is there a problem today you’d love to get your hands on?”, Hesburgh answered:
I think we ought to solve the problem of immigration. It’s one of the key problems today. I think I had the answer because, remember, I was chairman of the Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. I had two wonderful guys on the commission: Sen. Teddy Kennedy and Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming. We became very good friends, and they were with me, and we had the solution.
I proposed a simple process: We say to everyone illegal here in America, if you’ve been here five years or more and you’ve had no problem with the law, you’re working steady on a job, and you don’t get any benefits because you have a false Social Security number and you’ll never get the benefits you’re contributing to, all you have to do is show up to the local authorities wherever you live and say, “I would like to be an American citizen.” Then we will immediately put you on the track for citizenship. You’ll have to take the courses required, and you’ll have pass the exams.
I would say that if you put that program in, you can even cut back on the number coming in for a while until you get that problem solved. Once that problem is solved, I think I’d be a little more liberal on the number coming in. But you solve that problem first.
Read the entire interview on the Wall Street Journal website.
Proposals on European emigrants passed at Paris meeting
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008“Europe on the Move: the first meeting of Europeans resident outside their country of origin” was hosted by the Assembly of French Expatriates at the French Foreign Ministry in Paris on 30 September. Ean attended the meeting, along with a number of fellow members of the Europeans Throughout the World, and delegates from 24 of the 27 EU nations. Besides Ean Director Noreen Bowden, other Irish attendees included an official from the Irish consulate in Paris and Pat Cox, the former president of the European Parliament. There were approximately 175 participants in total.
The event was aimed at bringing together emigrant Europeans to work toward a European policy for those Europeans living outside their country of origin. Two roundtable discussions focused on “Better apprehending the Europe of Justice and European Administration” and “Giving European citizens better protection”. The event was addressed by several high-ranking French officials, including Bernard Kouchner, the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs; and Xavier Bertrand, the Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Solidarity.
The day of lively discussion resulted in a declaration that included the following proposals:
- Universal justice for all Europeans
- A European diplomatic and consular network
- A “European referent” in national public services
- A web portal “expateurope.eu”
- A European civilian and military rapid intervention force (to protect expats in the event of natural disaster or civil or military conflict).
- Harmonised access to healthcare for all Europeans
- European education with a universal dimension
- European recognition of individual retirement entitlements
- Entitlement to vote in European elections
- Political recognition in European institutions for Europeans resident outside their country of origin
The declaration was passed by consensus. Organisers pledged that this would be the first of many such meetings to be held at least annually and hosted as part of the EU presidency. These meetings will bring together representatives of member states to evaluate policy affecting Europeans residing outside their country of origin.
See the entire text of the Paris Declaration.
Radio programme focuses on global Irish
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008Ean board member Paschal Mooney has a new radio programme focusing on Irish emigrants around the world – and he’s seeking stories from you. The magazine-style show, called “The Irish Abroad”, will deal with a broad swath of the global Irish experience. It will air every four weeks on Fridays at 9 pm.
The first episode featured interviews with Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin and CIIC director (and Ean member) Sheila Gleason, and also a report on the Irish Post awards in Britain. October’s episode will feature Boston’s Irish Film Fest and tell the story of Margaret Gaffney, an immigrant to New Orleans in the 1800s who is remembered for her benevolence to the poor and her courage in standing up to occupying military officials during the Civil War so that she could feed the destitute.
Paschal is eager to hear any story ideas that Ean members may have – please email him your suggestions at pcmooney@eircom.net. He welcomes any topics that may be of interest.
Unfortunately, the show will not be available through radio broadcasts outside the island of Ireland until later in the year. It will only be available on FM, satellite or the Internet for the first several episodes, as longwave 252 is being used to broadcast sports. No doubt this is an unintended consequence of the RTE medium wave shutdown, which took away the option for emigrants in Britain and northern Europe to listen to RTE programming on the broadcaster’s medium wave band.
For those of you who can hear it, the next episode will be broadcast at 9:00 pm on October 24. There will be a break in December, when Paschal will host “The Irish Experience”, his annual four-episode exploration of the Irish community in Britain.
I assume “The Irish Abroad” will be placed on the website although it does not seem to be there yet – I will post the address here when it appears.
US-Irish visa deal signed
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008A long-awaited working holiday visa agreement with the US has been announced. The deal will set up one-year work exchange programme between Ireland and the US, allowing 20,000 Irish school-leavers to work in the US, and 5,000 Irish citizens to work in Ireland.
The exact terms of the agreement have not yet been reported, but the Irish Times says that the schemed is aimed at those Irish who are in or have recently completed post-secondary education. There is no further information yet on whether the requirements for Americans will be the same.
The deal was signed today in Washington by Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, and US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.
The deal is not aimed at alleviating the situation of the undocumented. Instead, the government views it as an investment in the Irish-American relationship. “By working and travelling for a relatively lengthy period in each others’ countries, our young people will build important connections which will help maintain our very close ties to the US,” said the Minister.
In an era of declining emigration to the US, the Irish government has been actively seeking ways to maintain the US-Irish relationship. Minister Martin noted that it was part of a three-pronged strategy:
“Today’s announcement is just one element in our three pronged approach involving a solution for our undocumented; new bilateral arrangements to provide reciprocal long term working visas (known as E3s) and the Working Holiday Agreement. Finding a solution for our undocumented remains a key priority for this Government.�
While most Irish coverage of the event naturally focuses on the visas for Irish people, the visas for Americans is also a substantial development. There has been much anecdotal evidence in recent years that there is a strong desire among Americans for an opportunity to work in Ireland. Ireland’s provision of this channel is a positive step in the right direction, and will certainly help to underpin the Irish-American relationship in years to come.
See the news report in the Irish Times.
Fr Hegarty reflects on T.K. Whitaker’s contribution
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008The Mayo News carries an interesting feature by Fr Kevin Hegarty on T.K. Whitaker, the architect of the modern Irish economy.
Fr Hegarty cites emigration statistics to highlight the problems of 1955, the year Whitaker became the Secretary of the Department of Finance at the age of 39:
Between 1951 and 1961 over 400,000 people left the Republic to seek work abroad. During that decade we lost 75 per cent of our birthrate to emigration. The 1956 Census recorded our lowest population since reliable statistics became available. Most of those who left were very young, poorly educated and ill-prepared.
Fr Hegarty cites as an example of this ill-preparedness an anecdote from Donall MacAmhlaigh’s book “Dialann Deorai”, in which a young man at Holyhead is asked to open his suitcase by a customs official; he is carrying nothing more than a pair of wellington boots with him to his new life.
As Father Hegarty notes, Whitaker’s economic policies “bore immediate fruit”:
In the first five years of the new economic programme GNP grew by four per cent each year. Unemployment dropped by a third, emigration fell to less than half of its 1954-61 level. The Census of 1966 recorded an increase in our population. We were on our way to becoming one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
Read the whole article in the Mayo News.
“New Irish, Old Ireland”: ACIS, NUI Galway. June 2009
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008The American Conference for Irish Studies 2009 event will be hosted by the Centre for Irish Studies at NUI, Galway. It will be called “New Irish, Old Ireland: The same people living in the same place”. The conference will be held from the 10-13 June.
The call for papers has been released. Here is the text:
Through the process of inward migration, Ireland has in recent years witnessed unparalleled mobility of people moving into Irish space. New Irish, Old Ireland, will explore the dynamics of immigration and settlement and their implications for the construction of Irish identities.
Thematically, papers might address issues such as: who are the ‘new Irish’; how are concepts of nationality and belonging redefined within new and established communities; how are concepts of ‘people’, ‘place’ and ‘home’ constructed, imagined and remembered.
Papers might also address issues such as migration and the Irish Travelling Community; language and translation; exile, asylum and economic migration; the local and the global; contact zones, spaces and frontiers; diaspora communication networks; ethnicity and multiculturalism.
We invite conceptual, comparative, or locally focused contributions to a wide-ranging discussion of the migrant experience in Ireland/Irish society, past and present.We welcome papers by scholars working across the full range of disciplines related to Irish Studies, and papers from emerging research areas are especially welcome.
Abstract Submission:
Papers should be no longer than 20 minutes. Please send an abstract, of not more than 200 words to: irishstudies@nuigalway.ie before 1 December 2008.
Conference Website: www.nuigalway.ie/cis
For more information on the Centre for Irish Studies, National University of Ireland, Galway, see: www.nuigalway.ie/cis/
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