The flow of Irish immigrants into America directly corresponds to the Emerald Isle's economic status. During the 1990s, when the Celtic Tiger was among the world's most vibrant economies, Americans saw for the first time the seeds of a reverse migration when Irish-Americans sought opportunity in their ancestral home. But the Irish boom has gone bust along with the rest of the world's developed economies, and many who sought solace abroad must now come back to America to make a better life.
Problems facing Irish immigrants are exacerbated by demographic changes in immigration flows in recent decades. These changes, combined with the increasingly anti-immigrant feeling that hard times have always spawned, are conspiring to throw up a virtual "No Irish Need Apply" sign on the American border.
Visas for family reunification are given priority to would-be immigrants, and there are very few legal slots left after the family visas are distributed. At most, only a few hundred spots are left for the Irish, who are placed behind more recent arrivals from Latin America and Asia. Many immigrants with a place further down the list are forced into the shadows of undocumented status.
Irish immigration is best dealt with within the context of comprehensive immigration reform to rationalize and humanize a process for the 11 million undocumented immigrants who already live and work here. President Obama came into office promising such an overhaul, and has moved to finally turn his attention to it this year despite the likelihood of Republican opposition in Congress.
Absent that, there are interim steps that can help all immigrants in staking their claim to the American Dream, including expanding the available pool of legal entry visas for all immigrants.
A legislative reauthorization and expansion of diversity visas for historically underrepresented populations would permit the Irish and others to legally enter this country on the same grounds as recent immigrants who qualified under family reunification.
The DREAM Act would provide a path for legalization to those who arrived as young children with immigrant parents and were raised and educated in America. The DREAM Act would legalize young adults who are American in every way but their paperwork, and relieve pressure on the pool of visas for other immigrants. Congress must pass the legislation. It is the right thing to do.
It is unconscionable that so many Americans have forgotten where they came from, that all of us except Native Americans are immigrants or their descendants. Slamming the door behind us is not only bad policy, it is un-American. It doesn't seem as if it should be necessary to remind decision makers of the contributions Irish-Americans have made to this country, but apparently it still is.
Irish leaders here and abroad are frustrated by Washington's inability to confront a failed immigration policy that robs the United States of the important skills and energy provided by the immigrants that are the backbone of American life.
To honor the contributions of all immigrants, indeed to honor America, we should commit again this St. Patrick's Day to finally embrace and enact comprehensive immigration reform.
O'Dwyer, a lawyer in the Manhattan firm of O'Dwyer and Bernstien, is chairman of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center.
Source:nydailynews.com/
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