Dr Ebun Joseph: It's too hard for non-EU migrants to move to Ireland

UCD's Dr Ebun Joseph has told the Tonight Show that believes that Ireland makes it too difficult for non-EU migrants to move here.

Addressing Peader Toibiín's recent remarks in which he stated that a debate on immigration was desirable despite not wanting to limit or cap immigration himself, Dr Joseph said it was fantastic to have a debate on immigration "but when you decide that the conversation we want to have is a one-sided conversation, that's where the problem is."

Dr Joseph said it wasn't only asylum seekers coming to Ireland and that she personally knew a friend from Nigeria who bought a house in Ireland "cash-outright" from money her husband earned in Nigeria and that she didn't need to secure a mortgage. She said this was proof that there are resources which migrants are bringing into Ireland.

In May, 2013, World Bank figures revealed that €468m in 'remittances' was sent from Ireland to Nigeria in 2011. That was average of more than €26,000 for each of the 17,642 Nigerian nationals in Ireland, including children.


The Immigrant Council said organised crime gangs were making €600k per day by running an international sex trafficking network stretching from Nigeria and Cameroon to Ireland in 2015.


One of largest welfare fraud cases in Ireland involved a couple who had arrived from Nigeria in 2006. The combined fraud totalled more than €400,000 and took place over a period of more than eight years.


Dr Joseph continued:

"Let's be clear, Ireland is not an immigration heaven. When I mean by that is that when we talk about Fortress Europe, Ireland is a Fortress Europe. When you're non-EU, do you know how many hoops you have to jump through to get a visa to come here? Do you know how many queues they have to be? People have to go and queue the day before. I know people who have to go and buy to get the GNIB numbers. It's not an immigration heaven that you think people just come in here willy-nilly. People who even have legal visas to come into Ireland. They are deported at the airport. Do you understand?"

Dr Ebun Joseph teaches a University College Dublin module aimed at exploring the experiences of people of Black African descent called ‘Black Studies and Critical Race Perspectives in Education’.

It's the first module of its type in Ireland and examines the histories, social movements and contributions of people of African descent, as well as look at contemporary forms of Blackness in society and around the world.

The coordinators behind the new module say that students will learn about key thinkers in the Black diaspora, their theories, and be offered narratives counter to traditional Eurocentric thinking.

“With increasing interest in Black studies across the world, this module will help non-Blacks comprehend what living as a person of Black African descent can entail,” said Dr Ebun Joseph, who will be overseeing the new class alongside Professor Kathleen Lynch."

Broadcast: The Tonight Show | Virgin Media One | 08 Apr 2019

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