February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Pierce O’Reilly
An immigrant counselor at the Aisling Irish center in the Bronx said this week that she’s concerned with an apparent influx of undocumented Irish immigrants to the center in recent weeks.
"I really don’t know why this sudden upsurge in immigrants has taken place, but they’re facing huge problems," the counselor, Breige Lavery, said.
The Aisling center, which is on McLean Avenue in Yonkers, reports that it is dealing with a significant increase in those seeking services and advice of late and most of the new arrivals appear to be undocumented. Though they declined to give numbers of new arrivals, Aisling officials pointed out that most were seeking information on employment and accommodation and were not there to pursue a green card through the 245i visa program, which expires at the end of the month.
"The last two weeks have being just crazy," Lavery said. "We’ve seen our figures shoot up and everyone is talking about the new faces around the place."
The newly arrived immigrants, most of whom are from the North of Ireland, have arrived in groups — sometimes as many as six arriving together. The shortage of suitable accommodation has resulted in a huge problem for the Irish center, whose officials say they are reaching saturation point on what they can provide.
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"You expect things to be difficult at the start of the summer when the students arrive, but it’s strange that it’s happening now, in April," Lavery said.
Five young men from County Antrim who are in desperate need of work and accommodation had to book into a local hotel last week because they had nowhere to stay. Several others are sleeping on floors and on couches at the homes of friends and acquaintances while they wait for an apartment to come available.
"If they don’t get sorted with a place, they’ll be stuck for money soon and that’s when the serious problems arise," Lavery said.
There is a similar situation with newly arrived women. "The age group seems to have dropped from the middle 20s to the late teens now and that’s also worrying," Lavery said.
The recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and the slowdown in the Irish economy are some of the reasons given for the recent influx of immigrants, officials say.
"I think a lot of people didn’t go home after the St. Patrick’s day celebration," one local resident said. "I also see a lot of those who went home last year arriving back now. It’s obvious that they didn’t like what they saw when they went home."
Lavery had the same story. "I’ve seen a lot of people return," she said. "It’s not easy to settle in modern Ireland and people, I think, got a shock when they went home".
The recent upsurge in Irish immigrants may also be to head off the student influx of the summer months. While others say that relatively cheap flights to the U.S. have encouraged people to jump at the opportunity to get away.