Three-quarters of Irish people believe that migrant workers from outside the EU should be able to have their families with them when they work in Ireland, two polls released yesterday have found.
The polls, which sampled over 2,000 people in 2006 and 2007, found that the majority believed that the partners of migrant workers from outside the EU should also be allowed to work.
In addition, almost nine out of 10 people surveyed felt that migrant workers from outside the EU should have the right to be visited by close family who have the proper documentation.
The polls were commissioned by the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) and the Forum on Migration and Communications and they were conducted by Red C.
ICI chief executive Denise Charlton called on the Government to "enshrine migrants' right to family life in legislation".
"Currently, the partners and families of non-EU migrants must negotiate a bureaucratic quagmire if they wish to enter Ireland," she said.
"Non-EU migrant workers can encounter long delays and repeated refusals of visas for their husbands or wives and children to join them or for their mothers and fathers to visit them. These long separations deprive many people who are performing work essential to the Irish economy the opportunity to live a settled family life."
She said that the Irish public's positive attitudes, demonstrated by the polls, showed compassion and good economic sense. "Government policy is clearly lagging behind public sentiment on the issue of family rights for migrant workers," Ms Charlton added.
