Published Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 16:31
by
Editor
(755 views and 1 comments)
At the PES activists Forum in Vienna, PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen outlined how best to approach the migration issue. Recognising the need for "new minimum standards on how to treat migrant workers in Europe," he highlighted the importance of these being based on "rights and duties."
Judging from history, Poul noted that "When you play the fear factor it is always the conservatives who gain." Therefore, as Socialists, we need to play the future factor based on inclusivity and equality.
Check out the video and let us know what you think. What exactly should these new minimum standards be? What "rights and duties" need to be promoted to develop a sense of inclusivity amongst migrant workers?
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Comments
1. Irish Labour Party and Migration by desmondotoole
on Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 14:01
Ireland has traditionally been a country of mass emigration. It is only in the last decade that we have been presented with the phenomenon of large numbers of people wanting to migrate to Ireland. Out of our population of 4.2 million, we now have a migrant population approaching nearly 10%. This has brought many opportunities and challenges to what was a previously insular people.
In response to that challenge I successfully proposed the following resolution at the last Policy-making Conference of the Irish Labour Party. It's contents may be of some interest to colleagues across Europe:
"Conference notes the significant number of people, including families, that have migrated to Ireland over the last decade, and who continue to come to this country in search of economic opportunities or fleeing persecution. Conference further notes that this phenomenon has presented both new opportunities as well as challenges for Irish society in adapting itself to these new arrivals.Conference welcomes the changes that large-scale migration has produced in Ireland. In place of a suffocating and inward-looking society unsure of its place in the world, we are now creating, in part by reason of the ‘new’ Irish, a confident, outward-looking and more culturally vibrant society. Conference, however, recognises that migration has led to strains in community relations and a rise in xenophobic feeling. This has often arisen as a consequence of repeated failures by a laissez-faire and incompetent government to plan for the changes consequent on this nation’s economic success or to sufficiently resource important public services, such as education, housing and the policing of labour legislation. The effect of these failures has been to associate these problems in the minds of many Irish people with the arrival of migrants. Conference therefore agrees that the development of Labour Party policy on migration should: 1. be intelligent, reasoned and based on evidence, 2. be values-led, 3. avoid using language which echoes the language of fear of migration, 4. recognises and leverages the potential support that is available to Labour from within the ‘new’ Irish communities, and 5. supports an all-Ireland approach to the challenges and opportunities of migration to both jurisdictions on this island.Desmond O'Toole
Convener - PES Activists Dublin.
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