"Losing our immigrants in a fog..."

[ferrellk]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opi ... 46966.html

[HOTSPURS]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opi ... 46966.html

Thanks for the article, Ferrellk. But it'll have little effect on the Politicians i'm afraid. Many of my friends are moving to Australia which promises Permanent residency in 1 year ! Ireland's loss is Australia's gain.

[esharknz]

Yes,
unfortunately in Ireland immigrants are seemingly still viewed as being "temporary" in nature. I recall someone I worked with trying to bring her husband over to live with her (work permit - visa required national) recently. His application was declined on the basis of him not showing any indication that he'd be returning to his country of origin. This is horrendous. I quite honestly do not blame people for looking at countries such as Australia and New Zealand. Even if you only get a work permit you are allowed to bring your family with you! Gaining residency gives you nearly all the rights that the nationals get. Why wait 7 years (after getting a response) when you could wait 1 or even less in the case of New Zealand?

[HOTSPURS]

My friends in the Healthcare sector are being welcomed in Australia & they're only too glad to move from Ireland at the first Opportunity. They've already got Permanent residency in Australia within a year. There'll be a day when Ireland would repent for losing so many Health-care workers to other countries like Australia & UK unless they quite seriously address the horrendous wait times for Naturalization.

[esharknz]

Agreed. Not only do they need to address the citizenship waiting times but the waiting times for long term residency etc. The inflexibility of status changes while within the country is also a problem.

I quite honestly don't blame people for wanting to move to australia. On my last visit there (given my occupation) I was being asked why I was leaving at the departure gates by an immigration official......the person was complaining that they couldn't find anyone to do such and such and why were all the foreigners with these skills visting and then leaving!

[archigabe]

Slow take-up on green cards by immigrants

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 15942.html

Fewer than 3,000 migrants were granted green cards during the first year of a new Government scheme for recruiting highly skilled workers from outside Europe, according to official figures.

A further 23,600 standard work permits, including 13,500 renewals, were issued last year.

The Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment suggested that lack of awareness explains the slow initial uptake of the salary-linked green card, which was launched along with three new types of work permits last January as part of the Government's new economic migration policy.

However, the new statistics show that while successful applications peaked at 446 in July, they fell steadily each month after that. Just 201 were received in December.

The figures provided by the department show that a total of 2,976 green cards were issued in 2007, and almost half of these were obtained by healthcare workers. The green card scheme covers occupations offering an annual salary of €60,000 or more but also includes some occupations in the €30,000 to €59,999 salary bracket where "strategically important" high-level skills shortages have been identified, such as in healthcare, construction and financial services.

The card is issued for an initial period of two years and generally leads to permanent residency. Its holders are allowed to bring their spouses and children to join them in Ireland immediately.

After healthcare, the sectors most represented among green card holders are information technology, financial services and construction.