Irish immigrants less likely to become citizens

[Abu Banat]

Slam Xenophobics:

Irish immigrants less likely to become citizens

Research has found that immigrants in Ireland are far less likely to become citizens than those in other European countries.

Bureaucracy has been identified as one of the barriers to people being awarded citizenship.

In a new study of 15 European countries, more than one in three immigrants were found to have become citizens.

In total, 34% of foreign born immigrants were found to have taken on the citizenship of their adopted homeland, according to the research published by the Immigrant Council of Ireland.

But in Ireland the figure was far lower.

Only 13% of immigrants who arrived in Ireland were found to have become Irish citizens, placing Ireland second from the bottom of the 15 countries surveyed and just above Luxembourg.

Bureaucracy, ministerial discretion and vagueness were just three of the factors blamed for Ireland's lower rate of new immigrant citizenship.

The absolute discretion of the Minister for Justice and Equality in deciding who is conferred with citizenship has created a lack of transparency, according to the immigrant council, which said Ireland had a lot of work to do to meet the standard set down across Europe.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0729/465178 ... tizenship/

[jeupsy]

While I certainly agree the citizenship process could still be improved, I would be cautious and not draw too quick conclusions from this study.

Firstly, I was quite interested in how they gathered statistics and what the exact numbers are for other countries, so I went to the Website of the Immigration Council of Ireland. They do mention the study and their final conclusions - but I didn't find any detailed report. I am usually my too em lined to just accept final numbers with no details of how they were gathered and which could help put them in perspective. If I missed the link please feel free to post it - still interested

The other thing I would say is that my impression is that the profile of immigrants in Ireland is quite different than in most other EU countries. Especially, immigration in Ireland is more recent and I feel like EU citizens (especially UK and Eastern Europe) represent a very large part of the immigration flows. These two points make immigrants less likely to qualify for it want to obtain citizenship (most EU citizens won't bother because it won't make a big difference for them, and obviously the longer you are in the country the more likely you are to qualify for or to want citizenship).

I don't have numbers to back this up yet, but I might have a look sometimes this week

[agniukas]

Statement by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Alan Shatter, T.D., in response to the Immigrant Council of Ireland’s report on ‘Access to citizenship and its impact on immigration integration’

Key Points:
· Figures date from 2008 – given the unprecedented changes since then, these are now virtually meaningless.
· 23,400 citizenship applications granted in 2012 compared to 3,117 in 2008.
· Currently, 95% of all valid applications are now approved.
· Since coming into office, the Minister has made a decision to grant citizenship in almost 48,000 cases

Ireland’s citizenship process has been comprehensively reformed since 2008, the year on which the statistical data contained in Immigrant Council of Ireland’s report is based. The report, while reflecting the situation which existed in 2008, does not take into account the changes to citizenship processes which have been made since and therefore cannot be presented as representative of the current position in 2013.

The Report uses figures from 2008 as the basis for its analysis. In that year a total of 3,117 certificates of naturalisation were granted. The corresponding figure for 2012 was almost 23,400. This represents an increase of 650% in the numbers granted. In addition, picking 2008 figures for the analysis, meant that many of those immigrants who would have come to Ireland within a short period of time before 2008 would not be in a position to qualify for citizenship as they needed to be in the State for 5 years. This would further distort the findings in the report. Accordingly, drawing conclusions from 2008 data and applying them to the current position when there has been such as sea shift in the figures makes the process virtually irrelevant.

As well as measures to overhaul and speed up the processing of citizenship applications I have also introduced citizenship ceremonies which provide a sense of occasion that serves to underscore the importance to both the State and the applicant of the granting of Irish citizenship.

Since coming into office I have made decision on over 56,000 applications and 80% of citizenship cases are decided within 6 months compared to 2-3 years back in 2008. The real story of citizenship since this Government came into office is witnessed through the many thousands who have become Irish citizens in recent years. I am surprised and disappointed at the stark omission of such facts from the Immigrant Council’s report.

29 July 2013

[jeupsy]

If the statement is correct and the report is based on 2008 numbers, this report is even more irrelevant that I thought. It is prett much public knowledge that things have changed very drastically in the past 2 years, and I find it plain dishonest to criticise today's situation based on 2008 numbers - and without saying clearly how old the numbers are.

[IntegratedMigrant]

If the statement is correct and the report is based on 2008 numbers, this report is even more irrelevant that I thought. It is prett much public knowledge that things have changed very drastically in the past 2 years, and I find it plain dishonest to criticise today's situation based on 2008 numbers - and without saying clearly how old the numbers are.

I kind of agree with the Immigration Council of Ireland for publishing such report. Although the current Minister has made an enormous progress, it is best that what happened prior the current Minister will never repeat itself.

People dread on what will happen if the current Minister leaves office; maybe a useless Minister like the previous ones will continue with their old ways.

The best way to tackle the previous situation once and for all is by publishing such report and tackling it for good.

[jeupsy]

Yes I think it is very fine to show how bad things could have been.

My two problems are that:
1) They don't publish there analysis methods or try to put the numbers in perspective with the specifics of Irish immigration flows, which is not very rigorous in my opinion. That I can accept even though I think it makes them less relevant.
2) Most importantly, until I read the PR from the minister, it was absolutely unclear to me that this study was based in 2008 numbers (and I assume the minister is not stupid enough to lie about this in public). This is where I have a serious problem as they are knowingly using outdated numbers to criticise the current situation - and they are not clearly telling people these numbers are outdated. This to me is plain dishonesty and gives me very little respect for them.

And in conclusion, there still is a lot of room for improvement (still some people here who have been waiting for 4-5 years, which I think is crazy) - but I am not sure pointing out issues that don't exist anymore will help make things better - as when you read the Minister's reply it kind of destroys the credibility of the whole study (which i am sure also has valid points) and there is not much media time left to mention the real issues.