http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/fea ... 81314.html
New Government proposals to regulate the working hours of Ireland's foreign student population could lead to greater exploitation rather than eradicate it, especially for the many young Chinese here
AS HE TELLS IT, Junyu Wang was having a meal in a Chinese restaurant on Parnell Street in Dublin not too long ago when gardaà from the immigration bureau arrived and ordered staff and diners to stay put. "They said, 'everybody sit down, don't move, give us your ID'," he recalls. "If you're illegal, they arrest you." It's a conversation about Government plans for new student work permits that leads him to the story of the restaurant raid, but in Wang's eyes the two are filaments of the same thread. Slowly but unmistakably, he is saying, the talk to is tightening on Ireland's Chinese students.
Under draft Government proposals sent to the social partners last month, all non-European Economic Area (EEA) students with a part-time job offer will soon be required to apply for a work permit, providing details of the position, the employer's identity, the salary and hours. It will be the biggest change in the student visa regime since 2000, when the Government decided to allow all non-EEA students to work part-time to help finance their studies. That scheme allows students to work 20 hours a week during the college year and 40 hours out of term.