Ireland must learn to use its head to make migrants feel at home

In a week when street battles have been taking place across France between unemployed young people from deprived areas and the police, the Republic is promoting anti-racism in the workplace.

"It's a good sign," says Patrick Taran, senior migration specialist at the International Labour Organisation in Geneva. "At least it shows they realise there is an issue with immigration and racism."

The riots in France are, according to Taran, a perfect example of immigration gone wrong. He says France is in the state it is now because of some of the decisions made when "guest workers" - as he refers to them - first arrived in the country. The root of the problem lies in the decision to house them in high-rise blocks on the edge of the city, separate from the existing communities.

"It's very clear what happened in both France and Germany," he says. "When they took in guest workers in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, there was no question that these were people - they were just labour. It was never taken into account they may end up staying."

In France, the current dispute involves disgruntled African and Arab immigrants who resent the French authorities for the situation in which they find themselves - segregated in the banlieues doing what Taran calls the "3D jobs" - the dirty, dangerous and degrading.

Taran says the Republic, which has only recently become a country of immigration after decades of emigration, can learn from these problems.

As many as 70,000 migrants came into the Republic in the 12 months to April, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.

"Ireland has an advantage over many other European countries as it is just setting out on the road of migrant workers and can learn a lot from the mistakes made by other countries," says Taran.

He believes that, unlike many other nations, the Republic has recognised from the beginning that immigration has to be managed in a structured way to avoid having people marginalised in ghettos.

There is no doubt that we need these people, says Taran, referring to migrant workers across the whole of Europe. Current trends suggest that the ratio of retired to working people is about two to seven, a number that is forecast to rise to four to seven by 2050. This means that in 50 years' time the retirement costs per working member of the population will be double what it is today.

"This will obviously play heavily on our already modest social security provision," says Taran.

"It's not like we are going to be able to raise the retirement age or get lots of women back into the workplace easily, so clearly a number of things are going to have to change."

That is the aim of Taran's trip to Dublin. To coincide with the Republic's anti-racist workplace week, employer and trade union representatives from the 25 member states of the European Union met yesterday for the first European social partner conference. The aim was to highlight the Republic's progress and to hold the country up as an example of how to encourage integration and combat discrimination.

"We want it to be a starting point for discussion and dialogue," says Taran. "We hope to set out some examples of good practice, not blueprints but simply encouragement for other countries."

Dealing with immigrants and social integration is something that Taran holds dear. Having worked in the industry for 25 years, and in his Geneva-based position for 15, the Seattle-born 56-year-old feels at home with the subject.

"What my experiences have taught me is that if you provide people with a little bit of assistance, give them the opportunity to get into employment and make them become self sufficient, then they often outperform the national average at what they are doing," he says.

One of the key issues to helping migrant workers develop and integrate is to give them some sort of independence, he says. In relation to the work permits bill, currently being discussed by the Oireachtas committee, Taran says it is important to ensure that migrant workers hold onto their own work permits.

Under amendments to the Irish bill, the employer must apply for the work permit on behalf of the employee, but it should then become the property of the migrant worker. This is a positive move, says Taran.

He also believes it is important that, as well as being encouraged to integrate, migrant workers should be allowed to maintain their own identity, which may mean practising a particular religion or speaking a certain language.

"Identity is a very complex phenomenon and stripping people of it is often extremely destabilising," he says.

According to Taran the best way of combating such issues is for the Government to set out a legislative framework within which employers and landlords could operate. It is then up to the local communities to help encourage integration, he says.

And encouraging integration is exactly what Taran hopes this week's events will do.

"What we are doing is providing a spark and a catalyst," he says. "After that we'll have to wait and see what people do."