Ireland has for years been infused with energy of immigrants but their absorption into the system has rarely been smooth, as one young Indian woman relates

The Integration Question with Princess Pamela Toyin

It is a persistent dilemma for immigrants that have lived in any country for many years without the ‘proper’ documentation in deciding to stay on in a place they regard as home, and where they came for a better life, or to go back to their country of birth, where in some cases they “are never going to be considered as someone indigenous,” as Kavya Raj says.

Like hundreds of children who move with their families to Ireland under varying circumstances, Kavya and many others like her struggle to find ways to get around the legal roadblocks to get their feet rooted in Irish soil.

Indeed, she says her dilemma began from the very moment she arrived with her parents at the age of 16. “I’m a city person and I believe we went to live in the wrong place – Tullamore – where nobody would talk to me. 

“They had misconceptions that we’re from slums,” she says of local attitudes to Indian people. “I was isolated. It was too much for me going into culture shock.”

And according to Kayla, Irish immigration authorities have their own biases, alleging that they expect women to be “submissive homemakers … They think we’re fighting for rights we don’t even have in our country.”

Kavya’s father relocated the family to Ireland after securing a visa as a highly skilled worker, but as the Irish economy dwindled, and despite years of contributions to the system, in 2012 his visa was not renewed. Since then he has been dependent on the State. 

“He had a contract and they took the contract away,” she says. “Now [the authorities] want to make him sell his mortgaged house in which he has invested over €100,000 and leave the country.”

Her father’s circumstances are a reflection of a defective Irish immigration system, she says: the country invited a valuable man to boost the economy, and later decided to exclude him from reaping from it.

Kavya also claims she has been given the wrong visas ever since she came to Ireland. She was initially granted a Stamp 2a student visa, which lasted for three years, till the family returned to India to bury her late mother. Returning to Ireland, she was granted a Stamp 2 to allow for continuing her studies for another four years, till 2011 – at which point she left for Britain after being refused Irish naturalisation, or even a Stamp 4.

The hardest part of the whole situation, she says, was going to college and having to pay full fees when people she’d gone to school with were eligible for free third level education.

Two years on, she returned to Ireland again to begin a Master’s in international relations – only after she confirmed she was qualified for the lower EU fees, due to her previous years of residency – but today, after graduation, her visa situation remains the same: a Stamp 2 which only allows her to work part time.

Now aged 28, and after many attempts through solicitors to get her papers sorted, to no avail, Kavya says she wants her life back – and wants to sue the Government over what she claims is the State’s denial of her citizenship.

“Why the hell does Ireland pretend to be open to immigration? We are helpless and don’t know how to bring our case to the international arena,” she says. “I have lost eight years out of 12. I’m not accepted here [in Ireland] and no longer accepted in India. I am judged as an outsider there.”

Kavya still believes the Irish are good people, but that Irish immigration policies are too harsh, and the process has taken its toll on her and her family’s morale.

“The immigration issue makes problems of racism and ageism worse, and my family has suffered,” she says. “Why am I being treated as a criminal if I’m not one? And why are immigrants my age in Ireland treated badly?”

- If you’re an immigrant anywhere in the world and have a story to share, whether on our own behalf or on behalf of someone else, please email echoesmediainternational@gmail.com.

Princess Pamela Toyin is a journalist and author with over 25 years’ experience in various roles, including as an executive PA to company directors, as a public relations executive, reporter, editor and publisher, research consultant and workshop facilitator.