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Monday, April 26th, 2010A British expat who lives in Spain is taking a case to the High Court in London to challenge the law that limits UK expat voting to those living outside the UK for less than fifteen years.
James Preston is a Spanish resident with signficant ties to the UK, where he frequently visits and has family. He works for a British company subject to UK financial regulations, and will owe inheritance tax to the UK government. He is a UK citizen and holds no other citizenship.
As the lawyer handling the case, Romano Subiotto, writes in European Voice this week, Preston is arguing that his disenfranchisement is contrary to European law, because it effectively penalises those who choose to move to another EU state:
In the context of European law, this restriction – one that citizens of, for example, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain do not have to endure – is contrary to the EU treaty. The EU treaty explicitly grants EU citizens an EU-protected right to vote in local and European Parliament elections in the place of their chosen residence in the EU. It does not refer explicitly to the right to vote in national elections, but it does grant EU citizens the fundamental right to move around and live freely throughout the European Union, without being penalised for exercising that right. Denying Britons the right to vote is undeniably a penalty.
This will certainly be an interesting case to watch. Surely an Irish citizen, similarly disenfranchised, could make a case on the same basis?
Related webpage:
EuropeanVoice.com: The Muzzled British Diaspora in the EU
72% would emigrate for work, says survey
Monday, April 26th, 2010The majority of Irish people would consider emigrating for work, according to a survey conducted by a recruitment company. 72% of the 1000 people surveyed by Grafton Recruitment in March said they would consider leaving.
When asked where they would go, Europe was the top pick; Australia, Britain and Canada were the next choices. Only 60% said they would be willing to relocate to Northern Ireland for a job.
Grafton Recruitment Managing Director Cathy McCorry said, “Migrating for work has become part of Ireland’s history and so it is of no surprise that Irish workers are not fazed by moving to another country for a number of years.”
She issued a caveat, however, noting that the loss of workers could be damaging for the labour market:
“The concern for employers, however, is that a massive exodus of talent leaving Ireland to work in another country will have a significant long-term impact on the Irish labour market.
She also notes that there needs to be more study of the effects of this outward migration on the labour market; as I’ve noted many times, there is a dearth of up-to-date information on Irish emigration rates. It would be great to get quarterly migration statistics, for example, instead of the annual ones we get currently, issued several months after the period to which they refer.
“This trend needs to be examined properly and employers and governments need to actively respond to the fluidity of talent and the challenges and opportunities that talent mobility poses for both employers and individuals.”
One of Ireland’s key strengths for getting ourselves out of this current crisis, of course, is our ability to harness the power of the last few decades of talent mobility. Perhaps this is encouraging some complacency regarding our current situation; as has been noted by several commentators, there appears to be little concern at governmental level about responding to the challenges of this latest rise in talent mobility.
Related website:
InsideIreland.ie: 72% of Irish would emigrate for jobs
Emigration has peaked, claims ESRI in forecast
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010Ireland will not create any new jobs in the next two years, but its jobless rate will fall due to continued outward migration and a fall in the rate of labour force participation, says the Economic and Social Research Institute in its latest economic commentary. The ESRI predicts no change in GNP this year over 2009, and a 1/2% reduction in GDP. A modest return to growth is predicted in 2011, with 2.75% growth in GNP and 2.5% in GDP. The number of workers, however, will remain unchanged – at about 1.9 million. While the numbers will be the same, there will be some improvement in the statistics:
In spite of the stability in the numbers employed, we expect unemployment to fall between 2010 and 2011, averaging 13¾ per cent in 2010 and 13 per cent in 2011. This expected fall in the rate of unemployment is related in part to expected migratory outflows – 60,000 in the year ending April 2010 and 40,000 in the year ending April 2011. We also expect to see on-going falls in labour force participation.
So the ESRI is suggesting that net migration has already peaked this year. I’m curious about how this assertion will hold up if the global recovery is faster than Ireland’s. In any case it’s hardly encouraging that the unemployment numbers will be shrinking almost entirely because the jobless are leaving the country. No doubt the government will point to falling unemployment as a sign of their success in handling the economy, as the emigrants’ departures shrink the unemployment rolls and lesson domestic pressures. The media has reported that the study’s author has said that unemployment would reach 16-17% were it not for the emigration release valve.<p>It’s depressingly familiar, and it’s had to believe that the government is terribly concerned with this situation. There is no job stimulus programme for young people, and cuts in the last budget aimed at keeping young people “close to the workforce” seemed to have been aimed at creating precisely this situation.<p> As Piaras Mac Einri said on Newstalk today, “Who has made any speech about emigration in the last twelve months?” And of course, emigrant services were cut by 14% in the last budget; by contrast, aid for the greyhound racing industry was cut by 13%. Such a depressing situation to have arisen under a government that genuinely deserved credit for transforming the relationship between Ireland and the Irish abroad. <p>See the press release on the ESRI website.
Register deaths of Irish abroad, say campaigners
Saturday, March 20th, 2010The law should be changed so that the deaths of Irish citizens who die abroad can be registered in Ireland, says a new movement that appears to be gaining rapid support online.
A Facebook page called “Help bring them home” and an online petition were launched last week. Organisers say they were moved to do so by the deaths of two Galwaymen who died in accidents in the US in July: Â 21-year-old Keith O’Reilly, who died in Chicago in a swimming accident, and 27-year-old Keith Forde, who was killed in a fall from a New York hotel. Their deaths were only registered in the US, in keeping with current legislation; their families feel that they should be able to record the young men’s deaths through official channels at home as well.
From the Facebook page:
The 2004 Civil Registration Act covers the registration of births, stillbirths and deaths in relation to the Irish public.
Under the current legislation the death of an Irish citizen who dies abroad is only recorded and registered in the Irish republic if they fall under one of the following categories:
1) The death of a person on an Irish aircraft or an Irish ship
2) The death of an Irish citizen on board any foreign ship or foreign aircraft in transit
3) The death of a serving member of the Garda SÃochána or the Irish Defence ForcesWhat this means is that for the vast majority of Irish citizens who die abroad they never have that death recorded or registered back in their home country.
Without the registration of that death back in Ireland it makes life far more difficult for the family members they leave behind. On top of this it means that future generations will find it extremely difficult to figure out what happened to their ancestors when they search through any Irish documentation.
These people are not just statistics, they deserve the right to be recognised by their country even in death. It’s important we make this change now not only to help with the grieving process but also for future families who may have to go through this awful event.
The movement has been gaining ground quickly. Launched on March 16, the Facebook group has already gathered over 1000 fans, and the petition has over 700 signatories. The group reports that they have received support from 23 TDs, including “2 government ministers, an Tánaiste, 4 opposition spokespersons, and the Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore.”
Related links:
- Irish Independent: Student dies in US after diving from pier
- Irish Examiner: Teacher killed in NY fall was due to return home
Gabriel Byrne to be Ireland’s Cultural Ambassador to the US
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010News reports are saying that Hollywood actor Gabriel Byrne is being appointed as Ireland’s “Cultural Ambassador” to the US.
Byrne has taken a leadership role in Irish-American cultural circles in recent years; he emerged in recent years, for example, as the strongest spokesperson for the idea of an Irish cultural centre in New York. Funding of €2.3 million from the Irish government was announced for the centre in December.
Byrne spoke of his vision in 2008:
“We started to talk about building a new center that would encourage not just the importation of current Irish culture, and diverse current Irish culture, but would encourage the development of a unique Irish American cultural voice, this while we would have the place to do it which is also a business center, where people from Ireland could come in and do business, where Irish people could get together socially.”
Byrne’s idea of merging culture and business was prescient: the idea that economic success could flow from an increased concentration on Ireland’s cultural activities was one of the strongest that emerged from the Global Irish Economic Forum at Farmleigh in September. And the visit by Taoiseach Brian Cowen to the White House will also heavily stress Ireland’s cultural aspects.
NY Irish documentary nominated for NY Emmy
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010A documentary focusing on the lives of Irish immigrants in New York has been nominated for a New York Emmy award. “Memory Brings Us Back: Irish Stories of Farewells and Fortunes” is a DVD of the much-acclaimed book, “While Mem’ry brings us back again”, produced by the Aisling Irish Community Centre in Yonkers, New York. The book, initiated by Frances Browner, told the stories of 35 immigrants to New York who came to the US between 1937 and 1964.
Derek Woods produced the film, which is a wonderfully moving depiction of the lives of ten ordinary immigrants reflecting on their origins in Ireland and their lives in New York.
“The greatest thing I got out of the whole thing,â€? Woods told the Irish Emigrant in New York, “was that so many people called me and said ‘I saw the film with my parents, and they were crying.’ It’s nice to know that this was bringing these families together.”
He added,
“This project has been incredibly rewarding already, and the Emmy nomination is just a great honor, not only for myself, but for the entire production team, and most importantly for the Aisling Center and the people that were profiled.�
“You see the everyday struggles that they went through. They went through all these trials and tribulations, and they’re very low key about it. It’s important for people to understand, it’s not a trivial thing. It’s an amazing thing.�
The film has been one of six nominated in the cultural category for the award; the Emmys award excellence in television production. Â They will be awarded in The Marriot Marquis in Times Square on Sunday, April 18.
Both the book and the film are wonderful and well worth the purchase price. It would be good if RTE would pick up the documentary, as there would no doubt be interest among people living in Ireland.
Related web pages:
- Watch Derek Woods previewing the documentary.
- IrishEmigrant.com (NY edition): “Memory” brings home the Irish immigrant experience
- Order the book or DVD at the Aisling Irish Center’s website
- Nominees’ list at New York Emmy Awards website