NO: There is nothing to justify citizenship panic - Ireland needs a managed migration policy and no more stopgap measures, writes Bruce A. Morrison
For two decades, I have worked hard for fair immigration to the US for Irish citizens and for peace in the North. More recently, I have sought to help craft sensible policies for the new migration into Ireland. My experiences force me to conclude that the citizenship referendum is utterly premature and badly misdirected.
What's the rush? That was my first question when the Government proposed a 180-degree turn in Irish citizenship law. And the shifting rationales for the change - from asylum abuse, to maternity hospital budgets, to "no backdoor to Europe" - suggest that the Government is equally unclear on what the rush is all about. There is no emergency to justify this haste.
There is no "loophole". Whatever has the Government in a panic, its proposal is definitely not "just a small loophole-closing measure". The Constitution says that a child born on the island of Ireland is a citizen at birth. The amendment would require that a child would need at least one Irish citizen parent for it to be guaranteed citizenship at birth, a complete about-face from citizenship based on place of birth to ethnic citizenship.
Don't blame the Belfast Agreement. The Government suggests "a loophole" was caused by the agreement. Nonsense. Territorial birthright citizenship has been the law from the foundation of the State and a constitutional right since at least 1937. Ian Paisley is right when he accuses the British and Irish governments of seeking to alter the agreement, which they said could not be done in other contexts. The agreement is the best news from the North since 1921, and it should not be picked apart to solve other problems.
"Commitment to Ireland" is not a real issue. First the problem was the pregnant Africans who did not want to leave. No commitment problem there. When the Supreme Court cut off the right to remain, and the new numbers of such births turned out to be small, those who don't want to stay became the problem. But anyone in the world who can prove his or her grandparent was born in Ireland can get an Irish passport. No need to show commitment of any kind. And every one of them - millions worldwide - can live and work anywhere in the EU. Now there is a "loophole".
Don't let the British tail wag the Irish dog. The Government cites the Chen case to justify its proposal. That involves a Chinese mother who bore her child in Belfast to secure Irish nationality for the baby. But Mrs Chen lives in London. As the Irish Supreme Court has decided - correctly, in my view - having a citizen child in Ireland is not by itself a sufficient ground to be allowed to remain. Mrs Chen has no right to live in Ireland. It is British law that allows parents of citizen children to remain, a convenient right to extend when you greatly restrict citizenship at birth.
Change that British law, and Mrs Chen's claim goes away. No need to change the Irish Constitution.
The amendment will not cure asylum abuse. The referendum gives the impression of a crackdown on the asylum problem. But it will do nothing to correct asylum mismanagement. Long-staying asylum-seekers will remain in limbo - neither approved for residence, nor rejected and removed, competing with the poorest Irish residents for housing, healthcare, and other resources, but denied legal employment. The resources now spent on supporting asylum-seekers during protracted processing should fund expert, accurate, but expeditious decisions to admit or deny residence. No referendum is needed to do that.
Put the immigration horse before the citizenship cart. Ireland's migration regime today is stopgap and piecemeal, all temporary work permits and asylum processing, coupled with year-to-year leave to remain and unbridled discretion over naturalisation. Look to Germany and its Turkish ghettos to see where such approaches lead. Immigration policy should be built on a clear set of standards based on the national interest of Ireland and its current residents.
Morrison visas were permanent Green Cards, not work permits. During recent Irish media interviews, the hosts could not stop saying that my legislation had helped 48,000 Irish undocumented to get "work permits" in the US. The number is right, but it was permanent resident "Green Cards" they got, not temporary permits.
Ireland also needs a well-regulated process of manageable and needed numbers of immigrants, not fortress Ireland nor open borders. It should provide permanent residence to those admitted, which will ensure that they are included in existing Irish society, not segregated from it. Shut the back door of asylum mismanagement, open the front door of permanent immigration, and the citizenship "loophole" will be seen for what it is: not the problem after all.
Leading Europe, not following, is Ireland's role. "Close the backdoor to the EU," say the referendum proponents. But the problem for the EU is not the back door, but the "Strangers Keep Out" sign on the front door. The EU is a great institution, but it is no place to look for guidance on citizenship and immigration. No European country has an immigration policy worthy of the name.
Canada and the US make plenty of mistakes, but they have the basics right. Successful inclusion of immigrants requires permanent admissions and guaranteed citizenship for children born there. European use of ethnicity to define membership in the community is a recipe for segregation of newcomers and ongoing ethnic strife.
The Irish people know how immigrants help build a nation. Morrison visa immigrants, like generations of Irish before, have prospered in America, and enhanced the prosperity and cultural richness of our whole nation. Ireland today is a confident, successful nation which has moved from unemployment and emigration to prosperity and labour shortages. Newcomers should be welcomed, not feared, for managed immigration will pay Ireland the same dividends it has the US and Canada. Reserving the right to bar immigrant children from citizenship at birth is exactly the wrong way to treat them as full members of Irish society.
It is hard to make and enforce good migration policy, but it is easy to get it wrong. Please help keep Ireland from taking a big wrong turn by voting No.
Former US congressman Bruce Morrison, the author of the Morrison visas programme, has advised the Government on immigration policy.