BOBBY GILMORE, SSC,
Madam, - Fintan O'Toole's analysis of migration (Opinion, December 17th) is a welcome clarification of the kind of confusion that hangs around the issue of immigration.
For the past 30 years the leadership of the EU member-states has been reluctant to give the public objective facts on migration. Hence the delay in an immigration policy that takes account of the demographic situation of the EU and the general benefit to its citizens of such a policy. The energy that immigrants bring is an asset to the country that receives them and a loss to the countries that lose them. This energy will be become apparent as the American economic recovery proves to be much faster than Europe's. The United States receives about 30,000 immigrants a week.
It is better to develop an immigration policy based on objective demographic fact, economic and social need rather than one rooted in xenophobic myths that are regularly left unchallenged. - Yours, etc.,
BOBBY GILMORE, SSC,
Director, Migrant
Information Centre,
Beresford Place,
Dublin 2.