US immigration bill to be reintroduced
Friday, June 15th, 2007The US immigration bill will be reintroduced, apparently. Geri Garvey of the Irish Apostolate has forwarded this statement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell:
“We met this evening with several of the Senators involved in the immigration bill negotiations. Based on that discussion, the immigration bill will return to the Senate floor after completion of the energy bill.�
Columnist laments returnees’ plight
Friday, June 8th, 2007The Irish Independent’s article on Vincent Lavery, the 71-year-old returned emigrant who has had difficulty finding a job and accessing social welfare benefits, has prompted an article by a columnist lamenting the difficulties of return.
Martina Devlin says that she, too, is a returned emigrant, having left for college in England in the 1980s and returning in 1995. She notes that her return had its own difficulties. She says that she learned not to draw attention to her London experience:
There was a resistance to returned emigrants sharing their expertise, informative though it was. We’re touchy on the subject. People who haven’t worked away can feel threatened by those with a broader perspective.
She also notes that the welcome for returning emigrants does not always live up to Ireland’s reputation.
If our emigrants are only back for a fortnight’s holiday it’s all sweetness and light and whatever you’re having yourself, but should they relocate permanently the welcome grows tarnished.
We pay lip service to the notion of opening our arms to our emigrants, but shrug our shoulders about problems in store for anyone taking us up on our half-hearted offer.
Ms Devlin says she has feels sorry for retired emigrants, “because the Ireland of their hearts no longer exists”.
The mission for them is finding if they have any common ground with the version that replaced it.
If we could shake off our tigerish tendencies, we could help them in this challenge. A country’s assets are meant to be its people – and our returned emigrants are part of that pool of wealth.
Read the full article on the Irish Independent website.
NY journalist to be emigrants’ voice in Seanad?
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007A journalist at New York’s Irish Echo newspaper has been having talks with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael regarding the possibility of becoming the first emigrant rights representative in the Seanad, reports Seán O’Driscoll in today’s Irish Times.
Ray O’Hanlon, who is orginally from Dublin, says that his aim has been to secure the parties’Â support for an agreed emigrant candidate; he will know in July whether he has been successful. The report says that O’Hanlon would like to see a panel for two or three emigrant representatives but does not want to rush the parties into sudden change.
The report also says that US immigration rights lobbyists have been raising the issue of voting rights for emigrants, saying,
Many want to use their vote to rewared Irish politicians who back US immigration reform that would legalise more than 12 million undocumented immigrants.
Much of the resistance to emigrant votes has come from politicians who fear protest votes, especially those going to Sinn Féin.
O’Hanlon says the internet and globalisation have enhanched the relationship between Ireland and its citizens abroad, and allows for emigrants to keep up with Irish politics. He says,
There is no longer this sense of exile and distance. The state may end at the Cliffs of Moher, but the economy doesn’t. People are more aware and more than ever before. Now there has to be a complementary political voice to match it.Â
 See the entire article at the Irish Echo. (subscription required)
See Éan’s factsheet on global external voting rights.
Returning teacher “sad and frustrated”
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007A 71-year-old emigrant who has returned home after five decades in the US is “sad and frustrated” with life back in Ireland, according to the Irish Independent. Journalist Shane Hickey reports that Vincent Lavery returned home after a 35-year career in teaching in Fresno, California; in the US he was highly active in his community, as a soccer coach and actor, and was active in the Democratic party. In addition, he founded the “Children’s Committee 10”, a charity that brought children from Northern Ireland (and later Lebanon) to holiday in the US.
He cited the employment indicators for teaching, as well as the positive words of President Mary McAleese and programmes such as Safe Home, which assists older emigrants in returning home, as factors in his decision to return to Ireland.
“I left Ireland when I was 20 but Ireland never left me”, he said. I came back every year. I came back permanently after giving two years of deliberation, under the impression that I could get work teaching.”
His teaching credentials, however, are not recognised here, and he has only worked 14 days in schools here since he returned nine months ago. Moreover, although he is the author of four books on soccer coaching, his attempts to coach youth football have been met with “a blank wall”, reports the journalist.
“People would look at me and I’d think, ‘What might it be about me?’ and the only thing I can say is my age…The Celtic Tiger Ireland has looked at this person without even giving him a day in court to see what he can offer. I had a lot to offer in America. I am absolutely sad and frustrated”.
Read the whole story on the Irish Independent website.
Migrant priests to be honoured in Rome
Thursday, May 31st, 2007The Irish community in Rome will be celebrating the lives of two priests, one an Irish native who worked in Rome and the other who came from Holland but worked in Dublin.
The Basilica of San Clemente will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the excavations undertaken by Dominican priest Joseph Mullooly. Fr Mullooly was born in Longford in 1812 and in 1840 left for Italy, where he entered the Dominican Order. He became superior of San Clemente in 1850 and remained there for the rest of his life. (more…)
Convicted fraudster scams Irish undocumented
Thursday, May 31st, 2007There has been substantial media coverage of the case of Ralph Cucciniello, who scammed millions of dollars from 200 undocumented immigrants. Mr Cucciniello posed as a lawyer working with Yale Immigration Law Clinic, and promised undocumented Irish immigrants that he would get them papers in return for a $5,000 fee.
But Cucciniello was not a lawyer, and the Yale Immigration Law Clinic was a fictitious entity. The 545-year-old was a volunteer research assistant at the university, who had several prior fraud convictions. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 1996 but never served the time because he was placed in the federal witness protection program. He has other fraud convictions dating back three decades.
Many of his estimated 200 victims are reportedly afraid to come forward. His crimes were uncovered after one of them contacted Olwyn Triggs, an Irish private investigator who works in New York. Ms Triggs contacted police officials, who filed charges on May 2. Ms Triggs has been trying to convince victims to speak with the police, but many fear deportation.
The story was broken by the Irish Voice in New York but achieved international prominence when it was reported in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune this week. RTÉ interviewed Irish Voice publisher Niall O’Dowd on the issue today.
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