Press Release
Tuesday February 23, 2010.Citizenship processes seem designed to prevent naturalisation: Immigrant Council of Ireland
Ireland’s naturalisation processes seem designed more to prevent migrants becoming citizens rather than acknowledging or welcoming those who want to make a lasting commitment to this country, Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) founder Sr Stanislaus Kennedy said today.
Sr Stan will today speak at the ICI’s “Migration and Identity Think-In” at the Humanities Institute of Ireland at UCD. Professor Mary Hickman, of London Metropolitan University, will deliver the keynote address.
Sr Stan said the ICI’s advocacy for reform of the naturalisation process had tapped a deep wellspring of hurt, frustration and anger amongst those who have applied to become Irish citizens.
“Grave injustices are occurring in the administration of Ireland’s process for applying for citizenship,” Sr Stan said.
“People are waiting years for a decision on their applications and many are refused for seemingly trivial reasons or, sometimes, for no reason at all.
“We need to ask ourselves why our system seems designed more to prevent people becoming citizens of our country because, unless we do, then any attempts to rectify the bureaucratic processes are doomed to failure.
“The issue is becoming increasingly important as more people apply to become citizens of their new home, paradoxically at the same time we hear more rhetoric about the need for migrants to ‘go home’ during this economic crisis.”
ICI chief executive Denise Charlton said more than 340 people had attended seven meetings held around the country to discuss the citizenship process. Delays and lack of clear rules consistently emerged as issues for applications.
“It is very clear that many of the problems with the system could be alleviated if the Government were to spell out the rules for eligibility for Irish citizenship,” Ms Charlton said.
“At the moment, the Government tells people the criteria they need to meet to apply for citizenship but not the criteria they must meet to be granted citizenship, a very importance difference. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has absolute discretion as to whether or not to grant citizenship.
“For example, many countries require citizenship applicants be of ‘good character’. While other countries spell out what this means in practice, Ireland does not.
“People have been refused Irish citizenship because they have come to the adverse attention of the gardaí and this has, literally, meant that people who have had had two demerit points on their driver’s licence have been deemed ineligible.
“What’s more, there is no indication if there will ever be a time in the future when those demerit points will stop counting against a person or if another application would have some chance of success.
“If the Government is going to enforce a system where minor road rule infringements are considered enough to debar a person from ever becoming an Irish citizen, it should be honest and say so. But we suspect the Government would be embarrassed to do so.
“More migrants are applying for Irish citizenship and these are people who want to make a lasting commitment to our country and to be considered truly and in fact one of ‘us’.
“As a matter of urgency, the Irish Government must overhaul the citizenship processes to make them fair, transparent and efficient.”
For more information, please contact Ruth Evans on 087 067 3676.
Note to editors
More than 340 people have taken part in outreach sessions on the issue of citizenship and permanency, conducted by the ICI in conjunction with community-based groups in Balbriggan, Clondalkin, Dundalk, Ennis, Longford, Sligo and Tallaght. Additional meetings are planned for Cork, Letterkenny and Bray.
Citizenship processes seem designed to prevent naturalisation: Immigrant Council of Ireland (PDF)