Public Consultation to inform a national strategy for migrant integration

Minister of State for Community Development, Integration and Charities, Joe O’Brien, has launched a public consultation to inform the development of a national strategy for migrant integration.

You can submit your views through an online survey up until Thursday, 30 November, 2023.

Purpose

Since 2017, the Migrant Integration Strategy has served as the central policy framework adopted by the Government to promote the integration of all migrants and their Irish-born children across ten areas of public policy. The Strategy aimed to enhance diversity, inclusion and equity for migrants across all aspects of Irish society. The Strategy also emphasised social inclusion initiatives, increased access to public services, and efforts to combat racism and xenophobia while supporting integration and social cohesion at local level. The Migrant Integration Strategy concluded in 2021.

A new national strategy for migrant integration will build on the momentum of its predecessor and address ongoing and emerging needs in supporting and promoting migrant integration. Ipsos has been contracted to conduct the consultation on behalf of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The consultation will gather insights and experiences on the challenges, needs and opportunities in supporting migrant integration to inform the development of the new strategy.

What is migrant integration?

In current Irish policy, integration is defined as the ability to participate to the extent that a person needs and wishes in all of the major components of society without having to relinquish his or her own cultural identity.

Integration encompasses participation in the economic, social, cultural and political life of the State. Integration recognises the right of migrants to give expression to their own culture in a manner that does not conflict with the basic values of Irish society as reflected in Ireland’s Constitution and Irish law.

As a two-way process, integration involves change of Irish society and institutions so that the benefits of greater diversity can be fully realised.

Who is a migrant?

For the purposes of this consultation, please consider a Migrant, also known as an Immigrant, to be any person who lives in Ireland and was born in a different country.

This definition provides for an inclusive view of the term migrant. Under this definition, a migrant can include any person born in another country who has moved to Ireland to work, to study, for international protection, for family reunification, as a refugee, as a beneficiary of temporary protection, and for any other reason not mentioned.

Please consider a person with a Migrant Background, to be any person who was born and lives in Ireland and has at least one parent or grandparent that came to Ireland as a migrant.

Please note that we invite anyone living in Ireland to participate in this consultation regardless of migrant or citizenship status.

How to participate

Please complete the survey which can be accessed here. You can submit your views through the online survey up until Thursday, 30 November, 2023. The survey is available in ten languages (English, Irish, Arabic, French, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Ukrainian)

For organisations wishing to make a more detailed submission, these should be emailed to IE-PA-migrantintegrationstrategy2023@ipsos-online.comThe closing date for submissions is Thursday, 30 November, 2023.

What we will do with your response

Responses will be collated into a report to inform the design and development of a national strategy for migrant integration. The report may be published and extracts from submissions or survey answers may be quoted in the report. Please note that responses from individuals will be anonymised; they will be aggregated with responses collected from other respondents and participants will not be personally identified in any way.

Please note that submissions will not be responded to.

Freedom of Information

All submissions and survey answers are subject to release under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2014 and are also subject to Data Protection legislation.

Personal, confidential or commercially sensitive information should not be included in your submission and it will be presumed that all information contained in your submission is releasable under FOI legislation.

External consultation

To view the consultation click here