Legislation to tackle racist crime and the promotion of the social inclusion of immigrants in Ireland are among proposals in a 'Roadmap to Integration' published today.
The report was published by the Integration Centre, which is supported by Atlantic Philanthropies Ireland Ltd, the One Foundation and the Citizens Information Board.
It was presented to members of the Dáil, Garda representatives and advocates at an event in Dublin.
The document lists 36 roadblocks to integration and interculturalism in Ireland, including education, politics and healthcare. It proposes 78 solutions to those problems and says all but one - the introduction of intercultural studies into the school curriculum - would cost less than €10 million.
Immigrants to Ireland are more likely to be unemployed, earn less, are at a greater risk for poverty and less likely to own a home according to the 2011 Annual Monitoring Report on Integration published by the Integration Centre and the Economic and Social Research Institute.
The roadmap provided 10 top goals, described by Integration Centre chief executive Killian Forde as “low hanging fruit”, to be attained by October of 2012.
These included updating the language to remove terms such as 'naturalisation' and 'bogus asylum seeker', the creation of a State-approved Irish orientation course to assist with integration and implementing intercultural studies as a Junior and Leaving Certificate subject.
Issues the document describes as 'important asks' include the creation of an orientation course for immigrants "to tackle the lack of information on cultural, political, and civic life in Ireland as well as public services".
It also proposes electoral reform to include at minimum a partial list system to address the under-representation of immigrants in legislative bodies.
Integration was not just about new immigrants, Irish Times Assistant Editor Fintan O'Toole told the event.
“There’s an official mindset very often which is integration is about how do we deal with these problem people who are complex, who are slippery, who are indefinable, different,” he said.
Mr O’Toole said the report would still be incredibly valuable if the context of immigration were stripped out because it would help to point out where society needs to be improved.
“The fact that we still have a 19th century one size fits all education system would be a problem for us whether or not there were a large number of migrants in this society,” Mr O’Toole said.
The report specifically did not address refugees or asylum seekers. Mr Forde said the organisation deliberately left space around those immigrants groups due to a lack of expertise.
Members of the panel also said they did not have information to make recommendations about integration in the areas of sport and culture.
Frances Soney Ituen, founder of the Athy-based Women’s Integrated Network, said society should work to “make integration a living word”.
If the Government works to achieve its statement of common purpose put forth in February it “would be a step in the right direction”, she said.
Ebun Akpoveta, an Irish citizen who moved from Nigeria, said that the report did not address the concerns of those who spoke English and had a job, house and Irish citizenship.
Those former immigrants who had been in the country for 10 years were less connected to the country now, she said, than they were five years ago.
Members of the panel said immigration was not just a Celtic Tiger phenomenon, but rather a continuing process in any society.
“It’s not sort a thing where we’ve arrived, it’s a constant and ongoing process,” said Integration Centre chairman Pat Montague.
“When we harness the talents, the enthusiasms, the capacities of everybody in society, everybody benefits.”