I move:
That Seanad Éireann calls on the Government to express its concern to the US Authorities on the implications of the US Immigration Bill for young Irish immigrants now working in the United States.
This motion comes at a time when our country is facing its most severe economic test. Unemployment is at an unacceptably high level. People battered by the past few years of economic recession once again have turned on what is euphemistically referred to as the safety valve of the nation, emigration. This most emotive of words in the Irish lexicon is rarely debated by Governments. mainly because they somehow feel that by not debating it it might perhaps go away. I can remember requesting a former Minister for Finance to allocate a sum of money to the Irish Centre in London only to be told that by making such an allocation at that time the Government would be perceived to be encouraging emigration. Happily that point of view no longer prevails and, in recent years, successive Governments have been reasonably generous within the budgetary restrictions imposed by the recession.
In this context I should like to pay tribute to the Minister for Labour, Deputy Ahern, and his colleagues in Government for their substantial increase in the allocation to DION formerly the Committee on Welfare Services Abroad of which I was proud to be a member until the Coalition Government revamped the committee and revamped me out of it. However, this motion is about the plight of our young Irish citizens in America who, because of recent US legislation, find themselves in a political limbo. There are some who will argue that the laws and internal affairs of another State are of no interest to us and that a debate on a motion calling for change in such laws has no place in our Legislature. Due to the emotive nature of the work "emigration" and its place in the history of this country it is a subject that is rarely debated, yet its consequences affect every family in every town and village in Ireland.
In recent years there has been an exodus of youth from this State which parallels in its enormity the worst years of the forties and fifties. Many of these young people, fresh from our educational establishments, well educated, intelligent and articulate, have found themselves caught in the spiral of youth unemployment and, perceiving no immediate future other than the dole, have opted for emigration. Between 30,000 and 50,000 young people under the age of 26 are alleged to have left Ireland in 1986. In that context I should like to quote from a newspaper which is published in America, The Irishman, going back to the pre 1981 period, by Niall O'Dowd in which he said:
It is a great achievement that no more will the Irish Paddy arrive on some foreign shore equipped for the lifestyle he has to adopt, nor will some of our finest people be stamped for export at an early age. The physical and mental draining of Ireland's talents has gone on long enough. It is a poor country that cannot support and nurture her own people and provide them with basic economic and social stability. Ireland has at last begun to achieve that. We Irish in America should be justly proud that the Irish Government has finally grasped the nettle of emigration and banished its sting, hopefully forever.
The situation has got so much worse. From 1981 to 1982 the Irish in America expected that emigration had finally ceased and that only those who wished to emigrate voluntarily would be coming to America in the future. In San Francisco in 1982 the GAA, that great bellwether organisation of how emigration stands, was down to three teams, one of them totally composed of Irish Americans and little hope was held out for the future of the games. Contrast that with the middle of 1985 when there were no fewer than seven GAA teams, now swelled to nine, and new Irish bars and community organisations were starting up all over. A most unlikely renaissance in native Irish activities had begun at that time and has continued, one that was mirrored in five other major cities across the country. New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. In Los Angeles they did not have a GAA team in the city since 1965. Suddenly overnight there were four and another in San Diego which had never, to the knowledge of people in that area, fielded an Irish football team.
All these changes have come about because of the numbers leaving Ireland. New organisations have sprouted up; old ones have become regenerated. In November many of these people took the plane to America, in many cases with a return ticket in one hand and a tourist visa in the other. On arrival in New York, Boston or Chicago or any of the other cities to which the Irish have traditionally gravitated, the newly arrived immigrant quickly assimilated into the sub culture and within days was working illegally minus the green card and at a job well below what his Irish education had prepared him for. So Ireland had lost one more bright, inventive, educated youngster.
However, in November last year a new law was passed in the United States making it an offence from June 1 of this year to give an illegal alien a job. The American Government are taking their work very seriously indeed. On May 1 the Immigration and Naturalisation Service opened 108 offices throughout the country to process applications for legal status from illegal aliens who have lived in the country for five years and are now eligible for legal status and, if they so desire, ultimately US citizenship. From 1 June this year employers become liable for warnings and from next year for fines ranging from $250 to $10,000 if they are found to be employing illegal aliens. These penalties are designed to discourage illegal immigration by drying up job prospects. They are also causing great confusion and distress to the Irish immigrant community in the United States.
According to a report in The Economist of 21 March 1987, page 47, column 1:
A New York state task force recently reported many cases of discrimination and threats of unjustified dismissal. Similar complaints are pouring into voluntary agencies. The law provides for a special counsel to hear claims of unfair treatment and to provide redress more quickly and cheaply than the courts.
However, the American Justice Department, which never really wanted special counsel, has yet to appoint one. The New York task force argue that this default by the Federal Government has had an alarming effect. One such effect may be to cost some of our citizens any chance of a hearing since the deadline for filing grievances is six months after the alleged offence. The Immigration and Naturalisation Service created fresh controversy when they stated that the charge for the legalisation process is $185 for the individual and $420 for a family. On this question of employing legal counsel it has come to my attention that unscrupulous US based lawyers are advertising for business among the Irish community at allegedly cheap prices and promising success. The Irish community would be well advised to avoid such rip off merchants and seek reputable legal opinion on their status before parting with their hard earned money.
How does the new law affect the Irish citizen working illegally in the United States? The law is retrospective and the amnesty applies only to those illegal immigrants who entered the United States prior to 1982. According to the most recent figures for immigration from Ireland, the trickle became a flood only since 1982. Consequently the vast majority of young Irish illegals in the United States are not eligible for amnesty under the new law. The situation is now acute. Since 1 June the employer must demand proof of the right to work, the elusive green card, on pain of fine.
The Immigration and Naturalisation Service in America sent warning letters to nine million employers and dispatched 900 armed investigators to examine personnel files in thousands of work places, mainly in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York where half of the alleged illegals are living and certainly where the vast majority of Irish immigrants are living. Although the law states that nobody can be deported on the basis of a rejected application — this process can take some time and, indeed, could be used by those who are prepared to be asked eventually to leave — those found to be working illegally can be pushed out, can be deported. Interestingly, raids on work places by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service will not be on a random basis but based on inside information.
According to some surveys I have seen, most informing is done within the same ethnic group, for example, Mexicans on Mexicans, Filipinos on Filipinos and, dare I suggest it, sadly, the Irish on the Irish, especially the older Irish generation who seem to be finding it difficult to come to terms with the large influx of brash, confident, educated Irish into their traditional work and living ghettos. This type of informing on one's own springs from a fear among the settled legal community that the new illegals are poaching or threatening their jobs. Indeed, scholarly research would seem to support this view. Mr. George Borjas of the University of California found that, although an increase in the immigrant workforce has only a small effect on the wages of the native worker, resident foreigners can be badly affected. To quote one example, a 10 per cent increase in Hispanic immigration into the United States produced a 14 per cent drop in the wages of legal Hispanics working in the same locality.
Another aspect of the difficulties facing Irish illegals in the United States is that some companies rely on alien workers and do not employ legal workers. The reasons are simple and can be summed up in three words: money, money, money. These firms are saving a third of their wages bill by not paying social security contributions or overtime and by not paying withholding taxes or, as we know it in this country, PAYE. Indeed, I have been informed that this type of company, sometimes owned, sadly, by fellow Irishmen and women, withhold all Government taxes, allowing their unfortunate exploited workforce to delude themselves into thinking they are somehow on the road to legality. The argument goes: "If this guy is stopping my taxes and social security contribution, Uncle Sam must not mind my being here. Otherwise he would not take my money, would he?" Sadly that money is being taken, but Uncle Sam is not seeing any of it. Unfortunately this type of exploitation will not be ended by the recent laws. With over nine million employers and only 900 agents to investigate, they can certainly get away with it for a little while longer.
However, I wish to restate the Government's commitment to secure legal status for these unfortunate people and I am very pleased that that is the case. They are our people and because of lack of employment opportunities at home, or because their friends were leaving and they decided to leave with them, they are now in need of our help. In that context, while no surveys have been carried out I would be very interested to know how many of the people who are now in America and, indeed, in England and other parts, are there because they could not find work at home or because there was no hope for them at home. This country has an investment that is currently paying its dividends not in Ireland but in America, Britain, the Continent of Europe and, indeed, wherever there are young Irish immigrants. We have a moral obligation not to desert them.
My own experience of emigration — I too took the emigrant ship in my teens — is that such involuntary departure from the land of your birth, away from familiar places and the strong bonds of family that are so much part of Irish life, the manner of such a departure breeds a certain cynicism and bitterness towards those who are left behind, especially those who are leaders in society, politicians, clergy, industrialists. It is past time that we in this House said to our separated brethern scattered in the four corners of the world that we are sorry we have let them down, that we could not find work for them, that they had to go if they had to go. Sorrow is not enough. We need all young people back, the flowering talent of our nation, and towards that end the economic programme embarked on by Fianna Fáil, which has had the tacit support of all sides of the political divide in recent weeks, will perhaps result in a return of at least some of our wild geese.
In this new Ireland of rising employment and general economic wellbeing the question is: will they want to return? Only if we as a nation, and through the nation's representatives in this House, come to their aid especially in America. Fianna Fáil promised in their election manifesto and subsequent to taking Government that they will use every diplomatic and political means available to us — that is, to the Government — to secure legal status for all these young people. We wish to mobilise Irish American opinion through all the relevant organisations to bring the maximum political pressure to bear on Congress and the White House. Towards this end I welcome the setting up of an umbrella group representative of Irish immigrant organisations in New York recently and on a personal level I pledge tham all my help.
This question of illegal status can only be changed by political action and it can be changed. The American system of Government is open to lobbying, and effective lobbying. It is only through such lobbying that change will come. I applaud the efforts of Congressman Brian Donnelly, who did so much to alleviate the problems of many Irish people earlier this year with the introduction of what have become known as the Donnelly visas. While I felt a certain sadness at the sight of so many of our people in a sense degrading themselves and trying so many desperately different ways to obtain a visa in order to leave Ireland, I am not so naive as to ignore the reality that for so many emigration has been the only option.
Congressman Donnelly is now attempting a further onslaught on the complex US immigration laws. Last month in the United States House of Representatives Congressman Donnelly introduced a Bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act, 1965, by providing for a seventh preference category for the admission of natives of countries adversely affected by the enactment of the immigration laws in 1965. Indeed, it is in 1965 that much of what has been happening in recent months first started. At that time, for reasons that I have not yet been able to establish, there was no lobbying of the American Government when the immigration laws first excluded Ireland which, up to that time, had received preference.
In seeking the creation of this seventh preference category Congressman Donnelly's amendment, if passed, would result in an extra 27,000 visas per year. He states that Ireland would receive an extra 5,000 visas per year over and above those granted under the first six preferences. It is a small step in the right direction and one that all Irish American political lobbying groups should get behind. It strikes me as astonishing that a country with over 40 million claiming Irish origins, where several Presidents, including the present one, have Irish origins, a country that was built by the sweat and toil of so many Irish people has enshrined in its laws an exclusion of Irish immigrants.
The extra 27,000 visas sought by Congressman Donnelly is 10 per cent of the total number of non-preference visas available to 36 European and other countries. Compare that figure — here I am talking to the American Government, in a sense, rather than to our own — with the estimated three million illegal immigrants currently in the United States and still coming in at the rate of 200,000 per year on the most conservative estimates. Most of these unfortunate people are unskilled, semi-literate and undereducated and, in most cases, eventually end up on welfare, a burden on the US Government. Compare that with the credentials of our young citizens and one wonders at the shortsightedness of the Administration. Perhaps we should be pleased.
I stated earlier that political lobbying would ease the position for our people. Already there are reports that political pressure from the El Salvador Government may result in an exemption for them — an exemption clause is being written into the new anti-illegal immigrant laws, the reason being that they have got more clout perhaps on Capitol Hill than the Irish have.
I thought long and hard before I considered putting this motion initially before our party and then before this House. As I stated at the outset, even the word "emigration" is very emotive. As someone who has left this country and lived outside of it for several years, perhaps I have a certain empathy with our separated brethren. That is not to say that, in framing this motion and in debating it, I am in any way attempting to encourage emigration, far from it. As I stated in the course of my contribution and as I wish to emphasise again, I believe we have a moral obligation to our people abroad. Some leave voluntarily; there are others who leave involuntarily. Some leave because of peer group pressure, because their friends are leaving, particularly in rural parts of Ireland, and they wish to go abroad. Young people have a sense of adventure. I left, not involuntarily. I left voluntarily, and I know many of my contemporaries did. I came back, as indeed many of my contemporaries have done, but I believe that in putting this motion before the House we are signalling to our people in America, to the people who ultimately, we hope, will return here, that we have not forgotten them and that in their hour of need we have been prepared to stand four square with them and to help them to alleviate a problem which has now, as I said earlier, reached acute proportions.
