Yet another report has found the Government's immigration policies to be "anti-family" and discriminatory and has sought changes in the administrative system in order to make it more transparent and humane.
The reforms required are simple and inexpensive while the outcome could be liberating in a society growing increasingly defensive. As a rapidly developing economy, we need these workers to provide essential skills and services. And we must treat them in a civilised and caring fashion.
The chief executive of the Immigrant Council of Ireland, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, found the difficulties experienced by people who wished to have their spouses or their families join them here to be unacceptable. The bureaucracy surrounding such applications, sometimes involving delays of more than a year, was of particular concern. In addition, the official decision-making process was discretionary and not transparent.
Earlier this year, the Government relaxed the law and allowed the spouses of highly-skilled workers from outside the EU to seek employment here. An estimated 10,000 professionals were affected and the change made it easier for employers to retain their services. The Immigrant Council now wants the Government to extend this facility to about 50,000 lower-skilled people. Such a move would address issues of loneliness and isolation, create a supportive family structure and provide for a second family income. In other words, it would make good social and economic sense.
As a long-time battler on behalf of the poor and the marginalised, Sister Stan wants the Government to stop regarding immigrants as stop-gap economic units and to treat them instead with humanity and compassion. Because of our history of emigration, Irish people should understand what she is talking about. Unfortunately, no sense of urgency appears to inform Government thinking on these issues. Having rushed through a referendum on citizenship, last June, it has gone back to sleep, leaving many important issues unresolved. The most pressing of these involves immigrant families with Irish children.
It is now 18 months since the Supreme Court upheld the right of the Minister for Justice to deport families with children born here. Since then, about 11,000 immigrant families have been living in a legal limbo, fearing an early-morning knock on the door. Recognising the plight of these families who applied for residency rights before the Supreme Court judgment, the Catholic Bishops said the only moral response was to let them stay. The Immigrant Council has endorsed that viewpoint. The Government should regularise the situation as soon as possible.