Ivana Bacik

Order of Business

Senator Ivana Bacik: I wish to ask the Leader for a debate on the level of integration of migrants in Ireland as this is an important issue. In the past week we celebrated Africa day and I understand it was a huge success that saw great events held, especially in Dublin’s city centre. Last week, in light of Africa day, I had the pleasure to launch a report produced by AkiDwA, a network of African and other migrant women living in Ireland that has done great research work on the experiences of migrant women in Ireland and the ways in which integration could be improved for them. The report was on gender-based violence, particularly its incidence in the African community in Ireland, and how services here can best deal with violence in particular communities. One of the report’s most important recommendations was that services here should be culturally specific when dealing with African women and women from other ethnic minorities.

In today’s newspaper a further report, commissioned by the Immigrant Council of Ireland and published by UCD researchers, was referred to. That report found, alarmingly, that there are very low levels of integration of immigrants in Ireland from a number of different communities. It studied Nigerian, Chinese, Indian and Lithuanian communities in Ireland and made the point that many members of those communities would like greater social interaction with local residents but lacked the opportunity to do so. This is something AkiDwA has also highlighted. We have migrants living here with high levels of qualifications and skills but are not using them. The skills of migrants tend to be overlooked and they can be left working in jobs beneath their qualifications. We need a debate on this matter to see how we can improve integration, upskill migrants and ensure they work in jobs appropriate to their skills.

 Senator Ivana Bacik: I support Senator Norris’s call for a debate on the Civil Partnership Bill. I welcome the support expressed by Senators from both sides of the House for the principle of legal recognition of gay relationships. It is distressing to hear the Government piously pontificating about the need to protect the family, when the policies it has adopted, such as its new policy on subvention on child care and the damage it is doing to community child care facilities, clearly show its hypocrisy and lack of respect for the family. It is also expressed in a report I will launch today for the Refugee Information Service on family reunification for refugees. Again we see people treated as second class citizens despite being granted refugee status because they face complex, cumbersome and inconsistent procedures in trying to get their children, parents and other family members to join them in Ireland. It is an appalling situation that again points up the hypocrisy of the Government in its so-called protection of the rights of the family.