DIFFERENT VOICES/Eastern Europeans: Native companies rather than multinationals are more likely to exploit economic migrants from Eastern Europe, writes Nuala Haughey, Social and Racial Affairs Correspondent
Since the 1970s, when Syrian and Pakistani Muslims arrived in Ballyhaunis to work in a halal meat plant, the Co Mayo town has had a uniquely multi-cultural mixture of residents.
Today the spire on Ballyhaunis's Catholic Church shares the sky with the dome on the Republic's first purpose-built mosque, and second-generation Syrians and Pakistanis play on local GAA teams.
Ballyhaunis is changing again, this time with the arrival of about 160 non-EU workers who have taken up jobs in chicken, meat and machinery plants in recent years on annually renewable work permits.
The town is home to some 26 nationalities including asylum-seekers.
Its immigrant workers are drawn mainly from Russia and the former Soviet republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine.
Many of the labour recruits are Russian-speakers and the common language has enabled them to form a Foreign Workers Support Group, a self-help organisation providing practical orientation sessions as well as social outings.
With the assistance of the local chamber of commerce, the group has hosted meetings with invited guests giving information about the tax system, banking services and health and housing issues.
"A lot of people here don't know good English and it's very difficult to get any information in Ireland about taxes, living or travel within Ireland," said Mr Igor Vassiliev (30), a Russian doctor now working with a charity outside Ballyhaunis, who helped set up the workers' group.
"We decided to organise and some people will find out about one thing and another person about another thing and that way it's easier to get information for everybody."
The SIPTU trade union is pressing for similar support and integration initiatives throughout the State. Its regional secretary for the midlands and the south-east, Mr Mike Jennings, said the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which issues work permits, should sponsor such measures.
But Mr Jennings notes a lack of enthusiasm among many employers to treat their non-national employees as people instead of just units of production. He gives the example of a recent workshop on the issue of integration, which should have been attended by an even mixture of Irish and non-national workers.
"On the day, only two non-nationals turned up," he said. "The employers wouldn't release people. All bar two were told their work demands on the day were too busy. Again, because the workers felt too vulnerable, they didn't push it. Employers should make an effort to help integration and interaction."
Last year 36,449 work permits - about 100 per day - were issued. Only labour migrants from outside the European Economic Area, which consists of the EU states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, need permits to work here.
Eastern Europeans and Russians dominate this labour market. Last year alone, almost 8,500 work permits were issued to Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Ukrainians and Russians, including more than 3,000 renewals.
These workers are largely concentrated in agriculture, meat plants, catering and hotels and restaurants. Some are extremely overqualified for the work they do - jobs which employers are obliged to show they cannot find Irish or EU nationals to fill.
Reflecting this eastern influence, Russian food shops have sprung up in Dublin city and north Co Dublin and a Russian language newsletter, Gazetta, was launched last year.
A Russian Patriarch Orthodox Church recently opened in a former Church of Ireland church in Harold's Cross.
The rapid expansion of the State's foreign workforce has brought both new recruits and new challenges for trade unionists.
Mr Anton McCabe, a SIPTU activist in Navan, Co Meath, has handled complaints from Czech construction workers refused overtime payments and put an end to illegal deductions for "agent's fees" for Romanians in the meat industry.
Mr McCabe says our "home grown" employers are more likely to exploit foreign workers than are multinational companies.
He said that when he intervened in the case involving Czech construction workers, an Irish man who was subcontracting them told him: "What the f . . . is your problem? They're better off here than where they were."
Signing up eastern Europeans to the benefits of trade union membership is hard work, says Mr McCabe, the chairman of the Meath Council of Trade Unions.
He said: "Latvians and Lithuanians in particular are very suspect of anything that's organised, like banks and trade unions and credit unions. The only union they know is the Soviet Union. People are afraid that if you are in a union you won't get your work permit renewed."
SIPTU wants an immigrant workers' rights section to be set up in the Labour Relations Commission, while Mr McCabe is keen to see multicultural groups set up on a county basis, involving social partners and non-nationals. Such initiatives are little comfort for the thousands of workers on the black economy, some of whom are asylum claimants using forged EU documents to secure jobs.
These people are usually paid less than legal workers, but are in no position to complain.
While by definition it is impossible to estimate the numbers of illegal workers, one Russian worker estimated that for every one legal immigrant in Ireland, there are two illegals.
The underground market in false documents is buoyant in Dublin and a woman in the Russian-speaking community will, for the right price, provide an array of services. "The system is working in such a way that you can get a job, false ID documents, drugs and even trafficked to Canada or America," said one Eastern European immigrant.
Like many asylum-seekers, Mr Daniel Grumeza (29), from the ex-Soviet republic of Moldova, easily found illegal work while his successful claim to remain in Ireland permanently as a refugee was processed. He rose to the rank of supervisor in an Italian take-away shop, working four months at one stage without a single day off.
"The best right of all for a Moldovan person is working a grill, not speaking English, but being able to take orders and a garda comes in and gives order and you make a burger and you feel that this is a garda that knows I am not stealing," he said.
"I am working. I may not pay taxes but I am working. If a garda takes an order from me that means they understand that my first human right is that I make with my hands my bread."