President of Ireland Mary McAleese has become the first Irish head of state to address Britain's leading voice on cultural relations.
Mrs McAleese delivered the British Council annual lecture on the theme Changing Faces of Irelandin London.
In her speech, Mrs McAleese said that drawing immigrants into every facet of Irish society is "one of the most important social issues we face over the next few decades".
President McAleese
"We know our economic migration policy must be both responsive to different stages of economic development and to labour market conditions. We know it must support the thrust of Ireland's economic development policy into the future," she said.
"These things are about numbers and structures, but at the simple human level we have an obligation and an ambition to meet the righteous desire of our newcomers to live within communities where they feel accepted, can contribute and feel safe and secure within their own identities, and at the same time be respectful of the ambient culture and system to which their choice of new homeland has committed them.
"Typical emigrants want the chance to prove themselves and improve themselves. They are hungry for opportunity and have sacrificed much in order to access it.
"We are the fortunate first generation of Irish men and women to have opportunity at home in abundance. It is something of a sacred stewardship to be treated with great care, for this is not just about us and our economic needs. There is our obligation to be good committed Europeans which we take seriously."
Mrs McAleese said: "You need courage to be an emigrant; to be a stranger with a heart-breaking loneliness for home and a deep human need to be made feel at home in a new homeland.
"Many face the isolating effect of barriers of language, religion, colour, ignorance and bigotry. You need determination to transcend all these things that drain away your self-belief and still work with determination to make a better life for yourself and your family, to prove your worth.
"This is all very familiar territory to the Irish and we hope our distilled wisdom and experience will enable us to ensure rapid and easy melding of our new citizens into Irish life. Of all people on the planet we have no excuse for getting it wrong and a lot of work is going in to trying to get it right."
The British Council is the international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations in Britain.
The President's landmark speech to the body comes as part of a special two-day visit to England that saw her take in the 2007 Cheltenham Festival.
President McAleese travels to Italy to meet Pope Benedict XVI on March 23rd for an official visit to the Vatican City and Rome.