“There is something wrong with the system when your Irish passport does not afford you the same rights as non-Irish EU citizens.”
Last month’s Global Irish Civic Forum was another effort by the Irish Government to address emigrant and diaspora issues. The event, held at Dublin Castle over two days, brought together members of community groups.
It was good to see that Australia was represented in some of the panel discussions. Marion O’Hagan from the Australian Irish Welfare Bureau in Melbourne took part in a forum about vulnerable emigrants. This newspaper’s editor also contributed to a discussion about the challenges facing returning emigrants.
Despite a dip in the visa numbers, Australia continues to be the number one destination for young Irish heading overseas.
The Global Irish Civic Forum, while well-intentioned, shone a light on underlying problems with the way in which Ireland views its citizens abroad.
First, there is little recognition of the fact of the diaspora’s diversity. You do not become an emigrant the moment you leave Dublin airport but, in truth, you do become a second-class citizen at that point. You lose your vote and other rights to government services. You become an emigrant when you become reasonably sure that you have started to put down roots somewhere else in the world and you have abandoned any realistic plan to return to Ireland. This does not happen in a year, or even five years. Ireland, sadly, continues to view emigration through the prism of geography. If you’re gone, you’re gone.
Second, the elephant in the room at any forum about the Irish diaspora is voting rights for the Irish abroad. A real debate on this issue will provide the avenue to solutions to other problems. Politicians will only really act on diaspora issues if they believe they have something to lose by ignoring them.
The problem we have, as members of the diaspora, is that we have no political currency.
Then again, there has to be some acknowledgment that the government is unable solve all the problems either. The discussion of returning emigrants focused heavily on jobs and how the government could co-ordinate the flow of information on the Irish labour market.
The assumption seemed to be that Irish citizens abroad, who are contemplating a return to Ireland, are going to just land back at Dublin airport with no idea as to how they are going to fend for themselves.
Irish people have excellent antennae for where the jobs are, and where they are not.
The Irish Government should not concern itself with trying to find jobs for people. It should simply make it a less onerous process for those who, for whatever reason, decide to go back. As it stands, the process is too bureaucratic, costly, impractical and a source of endless irritation.
Despite the rhetoric from Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan and other Irish politicians that the country “wants you back”, the best they can do right now for those who choose to give Ireland another go is to throw the Habitual Residency Form in their faces.
If you have been away – and out of the EU – for more than two years, you are essentially assessed as an immigrant. There is something wrong with the system when your Irish passport does not afford you the same rights as non-Irish EU citizens.
It is time for Ireland to recalibrate its view of emigration. Many Australians live abroad for a period and then return with little fuss. They reconnect with government services with a minimum of discomfort.
Ireland needs to take on the fact that in the modern world people choose to live and work abroad for a period of time. These people have not emigrated. They are citizens abroad and should be treated as such.