February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
It doesn’t seem that long for the simple reason that it isn’t.
Right now it would be a brave or at least a highly confident Irish immigrant, legal or otherwise, who would consider an eastward bound flight with a one-way ticket.
What seems more likely to happen is that many Irish will be considering the possibility of a flight west, to America, history’s repository for the Irish version of the American dream.
Times have changed in Ireland. They have also, however, changed in America.
If the 1980s was a time when work for the Irish was plentiful in the United States, even if legal jobs were out of reach for most, there is little or no assurance that work will be available for Irish arrivals in U.S. cities this time around.
If that be the case, it will be necessary to give any who head our way the kind of leg-up that was unavailable to so many thousands just a couple of decades ago. And that leg-up is a visa.
It’s probably the case – at least we sure hope it is – that even when full time jobs are scare in America there is always work for the skilled, ambitious and hard-working.
The very fact that there are still many undocumented Irish in the U.S. is, indeed, proof of this.
But just as it is vital secure a better future for the undocumented, it is crucially important to ensure that the current number of the undocumented Irish is not boosted as a result of unemployment in Ireland that some predictions are now pegging at 17 percent or even higher.
If it’s not possible for the Irish government to dictate the pace of negotiation in Congress towards reform of immigration law, there is more latitude allowed when it comes to negotiating a bilateral visa deal, or an E3 scheme as outlined by former congressman Bruce Morrison at the recent Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform meeting in Yonkers.
Sure, the Irish government is heavily distracted on a number of fronts right now. But there is no greater task for a government than providing for its citizens, no matter where in the world they be.