Why are so many people from new EU states earning less than their Irish counterparts? It's a complex issue, writes Kate Holmquist.
From a purely economic point of view, having doctors driving taxis and graduates stacking shelves is not a productive way to use people. As Alan Barrett of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) says, "There's a feeling that the economy is losing out if you are not recognising people's skills or are underutilising their skills."
Today in Kenmare, Co Kerry, at the Dublin economic workshop of the 29th annual Economic Policy Conference, Barrett will present statistical evidence that people from the 10 new (accession) EU member states are earning 45 per cent less than Irish-born people of the same age, education and work experience. Immigrants from the 13 original EU states are earning 33 per cent less than their Irish counterparts. We don't know how much less those from outside the EU are earning because research hasn't been done, but the anecdotal evidence is that non EU-born dentists, social workers and doctors are, indeed, driving taxis - or the equivalent.
Yet the earnings of immigrants from "Anglo" countries such as Australia, the UK and the US are on a par with Irish-born people of the same age and with the same qualifications, the ESRI has found.
So what's going on? One theory is that people from English-speaking cultures are better able to acclimatise to the Irish employment market and that Irish employers are more confident about accepting their qualifications. English fluency may be one reason why immigrants from "Anglo" cultures are working at levels suited to their qualifications, although the ESRI research did not prove this.
A more unsettling view, which appears to have plenty of anecdotal support, is that non-Anglo immigrants - whether from inside or outside the EU - are being subjected to "systemic racial discrimination", as Philip Watt, director of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI), terms it. "Sometimes it's not even intentional. What appears to be reasonable and non-discriminatory to the employer or professional body can have an impact. For example, entry requirements of professional bodies militate against people from outside the EU becoming recognised for their qualifications. The rules are not deliberately excluding people [due to race] but the rules and eligibility criteria do have to change in light of Ireland becoming a more multi-cultural society," he says.
FIRST THE POSITIVE side of this complex situation: Velemir and Emilia Bachik believe their employers' acceptance of diversity has enabled them to live the Irish dream for themselves and their two young sons, Dalibor (five) and Jelico (10). They have purchased a house in Ratoath, Co Meath and enjoy a high standard of living. Velemir (33) is manager of the most profitable McDonald's restaurant in the State, in Grafton Street, Dublin. Emilia (33) is a gentlemen's hairdresser in the Merchant Barber, Temple Bar, Dublin.
Velemir had poor English when he arrived in the State from Romania in 2001 with a degree in catering management, but says he became nearly fluent within two months because he was using English in a work setting. As the manager of 15 other managers and 89 staff from various ethnic and national backgrounds, he has observed that it takes a person from a non-Anglo country about two months to speak fluently, if they've previously studied the language at home. So he doesn't see English fluency as a barrier.
The couple intend to remain in the State because they like living here, and also because their sons will have better opportunities here. Both Velemir and Emilia believe that they have been enabled to work to their full potential in Ireland, earning the equivalent of Irish-born people doing the same job.
English fluency hasn't been a problem for Velemir and Emilia, so why do so many from EU accession states (Romania will accede in January 2007) earn less than their Irish counterparts? Is the fact that they are academically educated in the English language, but inexperienced in spoken English really the barrier?
Racism cannot be ruled out, says Barrett, although research into individual cases that would prove that racism exists has yet to be conducted. Those working with individual migrant workers on the ground can, however, give examples of specific cases.
"Employers feel that non-Irish-born workers from the EU, EU accession states and from outside the EU have no rights at all and so then can get away with exploitation," says Jacqueline Healy, Drop-In Centre Co-ordinator of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, which will report its own analysis of 89 cases of discrimination next month. Migrant workers themselves are unaware of their rights in many cases, she adds.
Exploited workers who are being paid less for the same work as Irish-born people are often fearful of complaining and many are unaware that they are entitled to payslips listing their tax and PRSI contributions, as well as having rights to be protected from bullying, racial harassment and health and safety hazards, says Healy. Some EU workers fear complaining because they don't realise that they can obtain social welfare benefits if they lose their jobs. Even if they are aware of benefits, they are wary of losing a job when it could mean moving house or going through the difficult experience of highlighting bullying or discrimination, especially because they don't have family and social supports in the State. Workers from outside the EU have an even greater anxiety: that losing a job and claiming benefits will sully their record with the Department of Justice, thereby putting their visa applications at risk.
IN THE MEDICAL professions, the risks of being outspoken about racial discrimination are more subtle. For example, nurses from outside the EU find themselves working in low-grade positions that enable Irish-born nurses to be promoted, says Watt.
Fintan Hourihan of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) points out that 60 per cent of non-consultant hospital doctors are from outside the EU, yet only 1 per cent of these are awarded one of the 100 highly competitive consultant posts that become available every year.
Foreign-born doctors, many of whom have been in Ireland for more than a decade, have great difficulty accessing higher professional training, which they need to get a specialist qualification.
There is a perception, says Syed Jaffry, consultant surgeon and chairman of the IMO's non-EU graduate committee, that doctors born outside the EU - even when they have Irish citizenship - are being used to keep positions "warm" for Irish-born doctors studying abroad, who will then return to take up the posts, even though this is illegal under EU legislation. He says: "There is a phenomenal number of cases coming up in the courts soon." Jaffry, an Irish citizen born in Pakistan and living here since 1993, worked in a hospital for five years, which gave him a legal right to a permanent job, yet he was let go and had to take his case through the IMO. Currently, he is in private practice.
Is this a question of protectionism on the part of the medical elite? Jaffry thinks that the problem has many factors, involving nationalism on one level and discrimination on another, while "human psychology" also plays a part. "There are a lot of complexities in it. I feel that professionalism should not reflect an ethnic background. A doctor is a doctor, no matter where he or she comes from, and should be treated fairly," he says.
Asam Ishtiaq, a consultant surgeon and former president of the IMO, who has been outspoken in his views about discrimination in the Irish medical system, says that he has been threatened with reprisal in the past. "The IMO does not go deeply enough into solving these problems," he says. Discrimination can be personal, he says, "as in being bullied more than others and at times being shouted at and ignored for promotions. Institutional racism was very rife in the 1990s but now has decreased a bit. Overseas doctors are looked upon as only here to provide service and not to be supported to reach the top of their chosen careers . . . The jobs that no locally qualified doctor wants are the ones that go to overseas graduates . . . Poor training and working conditions lead to locally (Irish-born and educated) qualified doctors leaving the system to go abroad, and the vacant jobs are filled by overseas doctors. The system is so perverse that it favours doctors trained in the UK, US and Australia for consultant jobs over home-trained doctors while not giving any credit to doctors who may have trained in countries other than the above."
THE IRISH ATTITUDE is to be accepting and open on the surface, while being subtly discriminatory underneath, he adds. "As an outsider, one has little chance of getting any pro bono advice."
Two reports produced for the Government, the Hanly and Buttimer reports, have made recommendations but no visible actions have materialised. It would be interesting to see, over the next five years, how many nurses who qualified overseas make it up through the ranks to become directors and assistant directors of nursing.
Jaffry points out that two great international campaigners for equal rights, former president Mary Robinson and the current President, Mary McAleese, have both taken stands to support racial equality.
Watt believes that Irish individuals share these values, but that in the bigger picture, we still have not the "systemic" changes that ensure these values are put into practice. Currently, he shies away from the word "racist" to define employers who exclude non-Irish born workers.
But, he adds, "if in five years' time, this is still the case, employers will have some questions to answer".