Ireland’s Lack of a Coherent Integration Policy

Abstract

This article offers an explanation of Ireland’s lack of a coherent integration policy, amidst policy fears about the social exclusion of immigrants and their descendants from Irish society. It does so through a critical analysis of a few, key policy documents and speeches by Irish government ministers about Ireland’s immigration and integration policies. It proposes that there are two stages in this process and, that in the second stage, the Irish government has devised a managed immigration policy of EU internal migrants for low skilled jobs, with a selection system for high skilled, non-EU immigrants, that still does not require a coherent integration policy.