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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Time to revisit immigration reform for Irish

Posted on Wednesday, February 09, 2011 at 07:31 AM

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Read more: Emigration ripping Ireland apart says leading cleric - SEE POLL

Walking around the Irish neighborhood in the Bronx and Woodlawn on Sunday I got a sense of a great absence.

At a time when 100,000 are set to leave Ireland by April 2012 the silence on the streets of the Bronx, where new arrivals are still quite rare was deafening.

McLean Avenue and Woodlawn were busy enough, but nothing like what I saw in Kilburn on a recent visit to London where young Irish emigrants are teeming in by the planeload.

Ireland’s loss should have been America’s opportunity, but somewhere along the line, going back to the disastrous 1965 immigration act which ended most emigration from Europe, we lost the plot
That bill was conceived to end the European dominance of emigration to America which was a fair enough objective and to allow other nations access, but in the process it effectively ended European immigration altogether.

Senator Edward Kennedy, who was a key figure in passage of that bill told me he had never intended that to be the consequence, but that is how it all has ended up.

No Irish need apply nowadays as assuredly as it did after Famine times.

This should be a great new era for the Irish in New York, the replenishment of Irish organizations, businesses and social gatherings like what happened in the 1920, 1950s, 1980s.

That thirty -year cycle of emigration is underway again now in Ireland but the preferred destinations are not the Bronx and all points west and north but Australia and Canada.

Sure there will be some who will come to America, but the reality of living illegally here has by now hit home in Ireland,

Back in the 1980s, thanks to a concerted Irish government and Irish community push, we managed to win the Morrison and Donnelly visa programs which took care of the undocumented who lived here then.

This time around we have not been so lucky. The Irish government was unbearably arrogant about immigration for several years having consigned it to the past in the midst of the Celtic Tiger, despite warnings that it inevitably would resume.

Thus, when opportunity was snatched up by a country like Australia which did a deal for its citizens to get 10,000 a year renewable work but not immigrant visas a year successive Irish authorities stood idly by
The Kennedy/McCain immigration bill was as close as we have come and the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform of which I was a founder, turned out thousands of people in Washington on many occasions in support of it.

It was a far from perfect bill but post 9/11 and the xenophobia in America against foreigners it was by far the best vehicle. Alas, it came untracked.

So now we have essentially no obvious vehicle but perhaps it is time to put on the thinking caps again. The floods from Ireland will not stop for several years, already there are signs that despite the consequences, many are starting to come here.

We need to help them out, to begin the quest again to equalize the immigration laws and allow Irish to come here legally in acceptable numbers.

Read more: Emigration ripping Ireland apart says leading cleric - SEE POLL

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Dublinjas | Feb 14, 2011, 02:41 AM EST

'jonycakes' The Irish are not just Past LEGAL Immigrants, the Irish are part Founders of the USA and past administrators of this former colony and by virtue of their geography and past situations were part and parcel of this Nation from its very birth pangs, whose blood has been spilled in every corner and in every state and shore of this nation. George Washington himself talked about his "Virginian Irish". We Irish have been associated with the US. from the start and never mind your LEGAL Bullshit, It was unfortunate that the 1965 immigration bill which was born of good intentions (designed to keep the Irish at home and better help their own nation)Cut the Irish off from the nation that so many of them had called home and rightly so, When you have fought a revolution a civil war a few long term skirmishes and a couple of world wars for a nation, you could be forgiven for feeling akin to it LEGAL or not. 'jonnycakes'

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GeorgeDillon | Feb 11, 2011, 06:51 PM EST

Rex, Right ON! Irish illegal aliens--Go Home, and fix your ruined country. Learn from nations that have backbone, such as Egypt and Tunisia. For decades the Egyptians suffered from low pride and self-respect, just like the Irish. Then one day they discovered what is it is to be free men and women. Go look for your backbone, Irish. You have no right to seek to work in our country illegally at a time when there are few jobs here and many job opportunities in Ireland.

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RexJ123 | Feb 11, 2011, 01:51 PM EST

Niall, you are your fellow Irishmen (be they in Ireland or the US) are morons! We do not need anyone else here in America! The sign at the base of the Statue of Liberty needs to be changed to say "No vacancy". The respondants below who tell you to start taking back jobs in Ireland from foreigners there are right! It never ceases to amaze me that Ireland, of all nations, pushes the US hardest for amnesty for illegal immigrants. I am half Irish and I say throw the illegal Irish immigrants out first.

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KathleenMcAleer | Feb 11, 2011, 04:23 AM EST

As an Australian Citizen, Irish - descent Glaswegian Irish Dancing Teacher, I have had close contact with recent Irish migrants fortunate enough to come here.Without exception they tell me they want to go home and are only here to earn enough to pay off their unsellable homes in Ireland. They and their children love Australia but are constantly reminded this is only temporary. My own grandparents said the same during their lives in Glasgow and never really settled. Whilst today's Irish migrants to Australia may choose to dabble in the Irish community , they have no real interest in supporting organisations that evolved in previous times because the focus is making a living and keeping the ties strong back home. But while they are here we welcome them with open arms and wish them well when they leave.

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Pittsburghkid | Feb 10, 2011, 10:53 PM EST

Wasn't Teddy Kennedy in the '65 Senate. Why didn't he Filabuster the Immigration Bill, or the '72 , & '87 Immigration Bill. Because the Kennedy's only play Irish. They are blue nose Bostonians, that make asses of themselvies.

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sully1167 | Feb 10, 2011, 06:41 AM EST

I agree GeorgeDillon the Irish need to stick together and not abandon their own country. Other nationalities stay in their own country even when times are bad. Niall O'Dowd just does not get it. Legal, Illegal and Irish Americans who are eligible for citizenship should move back and take Ireland back!

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ochshane | Feb 10, 2011, 05:55 AM EST

October3rd.1965. A date which will live in infamy. Another liberal milestone.

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jonycakes | Feb 10, 2011, 02:20 AM EST

Once again GeorgeDillon i agree with you. Wow, the arrogance of the undocumented Irish, or that of any other ethnicity to willfully break US immigration laws and then demand to be legalized because of some bogus belief that they are somehow entitled to US citizenship because of past LEGAL immigration is preposterous! The Irish have the entire EU available to them to live and work but they choose to immigrate here on tourist visas, overstay, then take jobs away from US citizens and legal permanent residents. I know enough out of work bartenders, waiters, construction workers, plumbers e.t.c here in New York that would benefit from the jobs stolen away by these undocumented immigrants, and it really sucks. So the best way to help them is to send them back to Ireland and the EU where they can legally take advantage of their opportunities, or they should legally try to get immigrant visas to the US.

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maloney | Feb 09, 2011, 05:46 PM EST

Just a thought, since illegal immegration is so big of a problem in America & many Irish Americans want to help the Irish come here as past generations. I propose we let the Irish come, put them to work as soon as they get here protecting our borders and ridding the nation of illegal aliens who bleed the country of our much needed rescourses. Fight crime & terrorism.

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jacersagain | Feb 09, 2011, 05:19 PM EST

@micaelidaho – all the arriving Irish will push the 9% unemployed back inta Mehico and get America working towards zero tolerance of unemployment * pardon me, jes' couldn’t resist the j/k line*

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GeorgeDillon | Feb 09, 2011, 03:00 PM EST

Guinessboy: "I hope something can be done, because before long (maybe 20 or 30 years) Irish-America will be just a chapter in the History books". Gee, that's just about the same time as Irish Ireland will be entering as a chapter in history books. By mid-century Irish are predicted to be a minority ethnic group in their own ancient homeland.

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GeorgeDillon | Feb 09, 2011, 02:57 PM EST

The best thing we can offer in terms of Immigration help for the Irish is to turn them around at JFK and tell them to go home and fix their country. And if they stammer "But sure an we have no jobs in the auld country" tell 'em: Yes, there are countless jobs in Ireland. They're being done by Poles, Pakis, Russians, Koreans, Mongolians etc. etc. Even in a few cases by Africans. But you Irish are too lazy (or is it stupid?) to do them. How dare you come to our country, when you have left such a mess in your own? Have a nice flight home.

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michaelidaho | Feb 09, 2011, 02:20 PM EST

With the "official" unemployment rate in the USA over 9%, can you tell me where all these Irish immigrants are going to get jobs?

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greensod | Feb 09, 2011, 12:48 PM EST

More Irish allowed to come to the U.S.would indeed be a great benefit for America.

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allentown | Feb 09, 2011, 12:33 PM EST

Ted Kennedy reached his Peter Principle when he graduated high school, or was it Grammer school?

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