Monitoring report on integration 2018

Abstract

Ireland's population is growing ever more diverse. Almost 12% of people living here have a nationality other than Irish. We have seen a large increase in recent years in people choosing to become Irish citizens and in addition, the numbers of second generation migrants continue to grow. This increasing diversity offers many benefits to our communities-from enhancing our skills base to enriching our cultural life. When we truly value diversity and take steps to demonstrate that value, we send a powerful message of inclusion and anti-discrimination into our society. Ireland's National Strategy for Migrant Integration is underpinned by the vision that migrants are facilitated to play a full role in Irish society, that integration is a core principle of Irish life and that Irish society and institutions work together to promote integration. Those working to realise this vision, across the public, private and voluntary sectors, need access to detailed information to inform and guide their work. It is by reference to reliable data on how migrants to Ireland are faring on key drivers of integration such as education, employment, social inclusion and active citizenship, that we can design and target effective interventions to support integration and remove barriers to it. This is why I funded the ESRI to complete this Monitoring Report on Integration. This report brings together these data, measures changes over time, and describes policy implications. It will be a valuable resource for policymakers and practitioners alike. The Monitoring Report provides essential evidence on outcomes for migrant groups in Ireland and shows how these compare with outcomes for the native population. This vital evidence will help to inform the design of the supports required to facilitate successful integration. Our increased diversity brings with it both challenges and opportunities. High quality, up-to-date evidence equips us better to meet both. I welcome this report.

Diverse neighbourhoods: an analysis of the residential distribution of immigrants in Ireland

“…Previous research has also shown that the experience of people from the UK living in Ireland differs from that of other EU nationals (e.g. Barrett et al, 2006;McGinnity et al, 2018a). We look separately at those with poor English-language proficiency because this has been shown to be a crucial factor in migrant integration.…”

“…This concentration in areas with high private rented accommodation is likely driven by low levels of home ownership among migrants themselves (see McGinnity et al, 2018a). Given the current dysfunctional state of Ireland's private rented sector, with steeply rising rents and high levels of homelessness, migrant concentration in this type of tenure is problematic from an integration perspective.…”

Attitudes to Diversity in Ireland

“…Respondents born outside of Ireland report, on average, much more positive attitudes towards immigrants than the Irish-born population (results available from the authors). See also McGinnity et al (2013), Chapter 6.…”

Developing immigrant integration policy in the Irish public sector: An international human rights and public sector duty approach

“…A comprehensive series of education and training programmes on The Migrant Integration Strategy could provide support for policy development, and public bodies should be provided with resources and practical assistance in the policy development process. The establishment of an integration forum could provide a platform for public bodies to share experience and learn from best practice, and to better explore the links between integration policy and integration outcomes (for the most recent report on indicators and outcomes, see McGinnity et al, 2018). This would complement the existing Migrant Integration Strategy Monitoring and Coordination Committee, which is comprised of public sector and civil society representatives and other stakeholders, and is responsible for, among other things, overseeing implementation of The Migrant Integration Strategy and agreeing indicators for monitoring progress (Arnold et al, 2019, p. 16).…”

“…The European Agenda for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals was agreed in 2011 (Garcés-Mascareñas & Penninx, 2016, pp. 2-3), followed by the publication of an Action Plan on the Integration of Third-Country Nationals in 2016(McGinnity et al, 2018. In addition to the MIPEX assessment of integration policies, the Zaragoza indicators provide an agreed set of indicators that allow immigrant integration outcomes to be measured across the EU and the OECD (Huddleston et al, 2013).…”