Greek efforts to help its Diaspora put ours to shame

About three million Irish citizens live outside Ireland, with 1.2 million of them having been born in this country.

The entitlement to citizenship extends to those born here, their children born abroad and, in some cases, their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Two-thirds of Irish citizens are in Britain, 500,000 in the United States, 250,000 in Austria, 75,000 in Canada, 40,000 in New Zealand, 35,000 in South Africa, 40,000 in EU countries other than Britain and a similar number elsewhere.

The Belfast Agreement committed the Government to change the Constitution by amending Articles 2 and 3. This has now been done, giving every person "born in the island of Ireland" the entitlement to be "part of the Irish nation", as are citizens.

The amended Article 2 goes on to state: "Furthermore, the Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage".

Some estimates put that figure at 70 million people identifying with Ireland, descendants of the seven million who emigrated since the 17th century.

It is a loose identification, but real none the less, especially in the predominantly English-speaking countries mentioned.

In a much more interdependent world this is a tremendous resource. It is a bridge between local, national and global; it multiplies international influence; and it opens up channels of communications and economic contacts not available to other small states.

The fact that over half the Irish-Americans are Protestant provides real opportunities for relating to the Irish abroad on an all-island basis.

This has been eloquently stated by Presidents Robinson and McAleese but usually been met with cynical rejection or dumb resistance by the political class.

Although the points are increasingly understood and acknowledged, official Ireland has been extraordinarily reluctant to respond institutionally and politically to these new realities.

Citizens abroad have minimal rights of political participation. Nor, unlike other European states, are there any established structures for representing their interests visa-vis the State and Government.

Care for the welfare of Irish emigrants abroad is left for the most part to voluntary and religious organisations - although lately there has been a little more commitment, with £1 million allocated last year in the Department of Foreign Affairs and more provision of information for those emigrants wishing to return home, now that the Celtic Tiger needs their labour power. Elite networking through business groups and organisations such as Tony O'Reilly's Ireland Fund is much more developed than popular ones.

Comparatively, it is still a mean and curmudgeonly official commitment, revealing attitudes inherited from the long period in which emigration functioned as a safety valve for a conservative society conveniently ridding itself of the most dissatisfied men and women of each generation. When they went they were expected to stay gone, remittances aside; in fact there was minimal return, until recent years. The difficulties in adjusting to the realities of immigration have been highlighted with asylum-seekers; but returning emigrants or their citizen-descendants often report similar hostility.

The Government has referred the issue of Oireachtas representation for citizens in Northern Ireland and overseas to the all-party Committee on the Constitution. Because it also has to deal with electoral reform these issues are in danger of being overlooked. That would be a pity - and also extremely short-sighted. As Fintan O'Toole has recently argued in these pages the new deterritorialised Irish identity made possible by the Belfast Agreement also reflects the comprehensive internationalisation of Irish society and economic life over recent years.

Not for nothing have the Taoiseach's speeches taken to referring to Ireland's Euro-Atlantic identity.

We have, therefore, much to learn from the experience of the Irish abroad as we negotiate these waters. And it is very much in our interest to do so, if diasporic identifications with Ireland are not to wither for lack of institutional substance. Larry McCaffrey, the historian of the Irish Catholic Diaspora in the US, suggests that could happen there as suburbanisation takes its toll in the large cities.

The case for citizens abroad participating in elections remains strong, whether Dail, Seanad or presidential. Comparative research by the Council of Europe suggests turnouts among emigrant voters are very low, although quite representative of the political spread among homeland voters. But given political resistance (which put paid to a proposal for three Seanad representatives two years ago) it is unlikely to go anywhere fast.

An alternative or supplementary approach is worth considering. Other European states have set councils to represent their expatriates, facilitate dialogue and consultation and act as a vehicle for welfare and cultural initiatives. They vary from those bringing together representatives directly elected by associations (Switzerland, 1917; France, 1948; Portugal, 1980; Greece, 1995); to councils of citizens or emigrants, elected by direct universal suffrage (France, 1984; Portugal, 1995) or indirect universal suffrage (Spain, 1989); to mixed systems, as in Italy (1985) combining direct election and co-option.

Association-based arrangements draw in the most active members of diasporic communities, provide for their autonomy, maintain social partnership and minimise party politics; but they also lock in to existing established structures and have no provision for direct elections. (The information is drawn from an excellent 1999 Council of Europe report on the links between Europeans living abroad and their country of origin, available at http://stars.coe.fr/doc/ doc99/edoc8339.htm - Ireland is currently chairing its council of ministers).

The word Diaspora comes from the Greek diaspeirein, to scatter. In 1995 the Greek government set up the World Council of Hellenes Abroad, elected every four years from representative institutions. It looks after ethnic and cultural heritage; strengthening ties with Greece; integration of the five million Greek expatriates in their host countries and facilitating their repatriation. It also operates cultural networks and communications facilities.

The General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad employs 40 people in a division of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. It puts our efforts to shame. The secretary general for Greeks abroad, Mr Stavros Lambrinidis, in his address to the 1997 conference on which the Council of Europe report is based, distinguished between a tree and a galaxy model of relations between home countries and their communities abroad. The tree model represents the home country as the trunk, the communities as the branches; but it renders the communities very dependent.

The galaxy model has the home country as a luminous sun but the communities as stars in their own right, related but autonomous.

We too need to move from the tree to the galaxy model of relations with the Irish Diaspora.