Irish head for Canadian new start

BY IAN ROBERTSON ,TORONTO SUN

FIRST POSTED: SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 2012 04:59 PM EDT | UPDATED: SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 2012 05:05 PM EDT

Eamon Gilmore, Ireland’s foreign affairs minister and deputy prime minister, lauded Canada’s welcome mat policy for helping young workers, some of whom will return home “with skills and experience that will help our economy.”

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TORONTO - Canada is wooing more job-seekers to leave economically-troubled Ireland, federal immigration minister Jason Kenney said Saturday.

And the welcome has paid off, with more than 5,000 temporary workers from the Emerald Isle landing by late last year, he said at St. Patrick’s Day launch of the Irish Canadian Immigration Centre in Toronto.

That’s an 80% increase from 2010.

Canada has long been “the land of opportunity” for Irish, said Kenney, citing his ancestor’s arrival in 1852.

Their immigration here began in the 1500s, with 4.3 million Canadians listing Irish origins in the 2006 census.

“We know, today, that Ireland is in a spot of trouble, but there is good news,” Kenney said, adding of all recession-hit European nations, “Ireland is coming back more quickly.”

But for now, Canada can take advantage of its well-educated young workers whose skills are needed here, he said, adding some may wish to stay while others will head home after work programs end.

The federal government is considering lowering the working holiday visa program to allow more young workers to apply for permanent residency in Canada, Kenney said.

He lauded Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, who visited Dublin and Cork job fairs in February with employee-seeking business leaders, with reports they were “absolutely thrilled with the quality and abilities available.”

Eamon Gilmore, Ireland’s foreign affairs minister and deputy prime minister, lauded Canada’s welcome mat policy for helping young workers, some of who will return home “with skills and experience that will help our economy.”

The good relationship will also “improve trade links between Canada and Ireland,” Gilmore predicted.

The Irish Immigration Centre was opened to aid recruitment of Irish workers to Canada, executive director Cathy Murphy said, citing calls from several provinces “and all over Ireland” since word spread of its creation.

“This centre has a real need, just likes ones in Australia and the United States,” Murphy said.

Oliver Murray, head of the 34-year-old Ireland Fund of Canada, said it provided $25,000 worth “of value” including legal support for the new immigration centre in the charity’s offices at 67 Yonge St.

Another $50,000 came from the government in Dublin, he said.

ian.robertson@sunmedia.ca

Irish flee economic woes for Canada

Pubs bursting at the seams are a reminder of the old saying that on St. Patrick's Day, everyone's a little bit Irish. But statistics show that immigration to Canada has become a lot more Irish.

By the end of 2011, there were more than 5,200 temporary foreign workers from Ireland in Canada, up almost 1,000 from the year before.

While the number pales besides statistics on workers from countries such as the Philippines or Mexico, Canada has become a premier destination for Irish workers fleeing a soured economy in their home country and an unemployment rate hovering around 15 per cent.

"The word over in Ireland for the last two to three years is that Canada is the place to go," said Eamonn O'Loghlin, who came to Canada from Ireland 36 years ago and is now involved in a number of Irish-Canadian organizations.

"They can hit the ground running here, they are all very well educated, there's no language barrier, no real cultural issues and they have a very dynamic and caring Irish diaspora here already so there's someone here on the ground."

The high numbers of Irish going to Canada have even caused some hand-wringing in the United Sates, long an Irishman's favourite second home.

U.S. immigration policy blamed for restricting influx

"Today, however, our country is being deprived of the talent of the best and brightest of Ireland's young," said column in Thursday's New York Daily News, which blamed America's immigration policy for the decrease.

"Now, many are immigrating to Australia, Canada and England. And as some two centuries of previous Irish immigration have amply shown, our loss of this wealth of talent is the gain of our economic rivals."

Efforts like those by Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall to actively recruit Irish immigrants have helped send a signal, said Cathy Murphy, the executive director of the Irish Canadian Immigration Centre, which has its formal opening in Toronto on Saturday.

Wall travelled to Ireland last month with a group of business leaders to attend job fairs in a bid to fill vacancies.

Construction associations from B.C. and Alberta also conducted their own fact-finding missions this year to source out labour.

"Canadians are opening their arms to new immigrants and I do think that's why we're seeing more to come here right now," Murphy said.

Irish immigration to Canada dates back to the 16th century. By the 2006 census, more than 4.3 million Canadians listed their ethnic origin as Irish.

It's the strong diaspora that's helping out today's newcomers, said Murphy.

"Although they left under difficult circumstances, certainly, they wouldn't have left under circumstances that are as dire as what's happening in Ireland now," she said.

"I think the older generation feels quite a lot of empathy that the younger generation has to leave Ireland because of jobs, there isn't a choice. They are not coming for adventure, they are coming out of necessity."

Even the Irish government itself is working to make sure that its emigrants are well supported in Canada.

Dublin invests in Canadian immigration centre

In 2011, the government in Dublin spent close to $14.8 million on grants to support Irish people around the world, with about $190,000 of that going to Canada, including to the new immigration centre.

On Saturday, Ireland's deputy prime minister will be among those in attendance at the centre's opening.

He's one of 16 government ministers dispatched around the world from Dublin this St. Patrick's Day.

The charm offensive seeks to both woo investment but also send a signal to the almost 100,000 Irish who left home in the last two years that their government does hope to see them return.

But Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is hoping more of them actually stay.

"We'd like to give them a more realistic choice of staying here as permanent residents," he said.

"We're happy to be in competition with Ireland for the talents of their young people."

The government is looking at changing the working holiday visa program commonly used by the Irish to allow them to apply for permanent residency sooner.

Only 665 became permanent residents last year.

"If they're doing well in labour market, if an employer likes them and wants to keep them and they meet our other criteria like speaking English, why would we want to send them back?" Kenney said.