Archive for January, 2008
« Previous EntriesNew influx into US, say centres
Thursday, January 31st, 2008Irish immigration centres in the US are reporting that there has been an increase in new arrivals from Ireland, according to a report in last week’s Irish Voice newspaper. The paper interviewed Irish centres in Boston, New York, and San Francisco, and all have reported a rise in the number of recently arrived people seeking their services.
Orla Kelleher of the Aisling Centre called the increase in numbers “a huge turnaround”. The new arrivals tend to be in their early to mid-twenties, and men and women are coming in equal numbers. Most of them are from the north, northwest and west of Ireland. Most of them are arriving with at least one friend, and sometimes in groups.
Kelleher says most of the women have degrees and are looking for work in hospitality, and most of the men are in trades and looking for construction work. She notes, worryingly, that few are worried about the consequences of overstaying their three-month legal stay.
Children and migration: Cork, April 2008
Monday, January 28th, 2008The Marie Curie Migrant Children Research team at the Department of Geography, University College Cork will host “Children and Migration: identities, mobilities, and belonging(s)” from April 9 to 11, 2008.
Organisers are aiming to provide an integrated and interdisciplinary forum for discussion of recent research and policy developments from a wide range of perspectives, with a common focus on children’s own experiences of and perspectives on migration, diaspora and transnationalism.
More than 80 papers will be presented by researchers from over 20 countries across a variety of disciplines. Papers, lectures, panel discussions and posters will include topics such as transnational childhoods, children and the asylum system, second generation youth, diversity and education, multilingualism, and children’s rights. The event is funded by a Marie Curie Excellence Grant.
Keynote speakers will be Katy Gardner of the University of Sussex on “Diasporic childhood: transglobal children in east London”, and Jill Rutter of the UK’s Institute for Public Policy Research on “Changing patterns of child international migration in Europe: challenges for research, public policy and practice”.
Irish immigrant in NY fights extradition
Monday, January 28th, 2008A County Louth native is fighting extradition from the US. Joe Byrne, a resident of Pearl River, New York, is facing an extradition warrant filed by the Director of Public Prosecution in Ireland. Authorities there allege he was involved in two robberies over ten years ago. Mr Byrne was questioned by gardai in 1997 over the case, in which £8,200 was stolen from a pub; at that time, he was released without charge. Shortly after, he moved to the US, met his wife, Eileen, and received a green card; on the application, he admitted that he had been questioned in the case and provided a reference from the gardai in Dundalk.
In July 2006, however, he was arrested by FBI agents on the warrant from the Irish authorities. Last fall, a court in New York decided against him.
His extradition was originally scheduled to take place before 29th of January, but the Department of State has agreed to put off the extradition until at least next month.
Mr Byrne’s wife, Eileen, told the Irish Emigrant that she fears for his life were he to be extradited, saying the main person involved in the robbery was a known member of the INLA.
The Ancient Order of Hibernians is supporting a petition campaign to stop the extradition.
Read the full story in the Irish Emigrant.
View the petition to stop the extradition.
New Zealand: Nations, Diasporas, Identities. March 2008
Monday, January 28th, 2008Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand will host a conference called “Nations, Diasporas, Identities” from March 27 to 30, 2008.
The conference will look at the notion of diaspora and identity as set against the backdrop of political and economic events in Scotland and Ireland, as well as increasing assertion of Irish and Scottish identities abroad. In examining the relationships between these issues, organisers ask:
Do these diasporic identities, however, have any continuing relationship with the identities of the nations to which they are attached? Or are national identities themselves being transformed by feedback from their diaporas? Or are alternative ‘national’ identities developing which may claim to express the same national past but in fact envisage it in very different ways? Should the notion of the ‘nation’ be extended to encompass its diasporas or should it be narrowed down so that it does not exclude those who are themselves immigrants within its boundaries? What is a national history or a national culture in this world of mobile populations?
For more information, visit the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies.
Aberdeen: Irish and Scottish Migration. Feb-June 2008
Monday, January 28th, 2008The University of Aberdeen is hosting a series of three one-day conferences called “Irish and Scottish Migration and Settlement: Intellectual, Political and Environmental Frontiers”. The conferences will be held in the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies.
Organisers say:
Overseas migration has conventionally been understood as a process that leads migrants to cross a variety of literal and metaphorical “frontiers� in order to settle into new societies. This series of three one-day conferences invites participants to reconsider this issue, looking instead at the varied ways in which the exploration of intellectual, political and environmental “frontiers� by Irish and Scottish migrants and their descendants generated new ideas, discourses and modes of life. Participants are also invited to consider the significance of this dynamic process for overseas Scottish and Irish communities, for the broader societies within which they lived, as well as for the Irish and Scottish homelands.
The conferences are scheduled as follows:
- Intellectual Frontiers – 23 Feb
- Political Frontiers – 3 May
- Environmental Frontiers – 21 June
See the programme for “Intellectual Frontiers”.
The Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen is an interdisciplinary centre offering taught master and doctoral programmes in the history, literature and culture of Ireland and Scotland, and carries out research across these disciplines. It is host to the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies, funded by the Art and Humanities Research Council.
See the website for the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies.
DFA launches charter, registration facility
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008The Department of Foreign Affairs has launched two new services on its website, aimed at those travelling or resident overseas. The two services are:
- a Consular Services Charter for citizens, called “Travel Safely, Slán Abhaile” – a document setting out the range of services provided by embassies and consulates abroad, as well as advice on steps to take before travelling abroad.
- an online travel registration facility for Irish people resident or travelling abroad – aimed particularly at those travelling to remote or dangerous locations, and at improving the DFA’s capacity to locate Irish citizens caught in a major crisis or family emergency.
In launching the services, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said,
As people travel more frequently, the demand for our Consular services has increased….This new service will significantly improve our capacity to locate and connect with Irish citizens caught up in a crisis and to get assistance to them. It also will improve our ability to provide timely and accurate information to their relatives in Ireland.
He added that the DFA’s approach to consular assistance
is interventionist and places the welfare of Irish citizens in need at its core. Officers of the Department at home and abroad repeatedly display a willingness to go the extra mile and deliver on that commitment. I know from my own direct dealings with people in difficulty and their families that this is greatly appreciated. Last year alone, the Department of Foreign Affairs provided direct assistance in over 130 cases of deaths abroad.
Irish people made nearly eight million trips abroad last year. ‘Travel Safely, Slán Abhaile’ will be distributed widely through public libraries, schools, universities and colleges, travel agents, citizen information centres and at missions abroad.
See the press release for more information.
See the Travel Registration page on the DFA website.
See the Consular Services Charter on the DFA website.
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