THAT REFERENDUM…
so as june 11th approaches more news about the proposed citizenship referendum appears… and again, though i’m pretty neutral on the subject i detest the language of hysteria and xenophobia that i percieve regarding the horde of “economic migrants” and “citizenship tourists” that are abusing the irish citizenship laws. puh-leeze… pretty ironic in light of this article i found recently, urging president bush to do more for undocumented irish immigrants in the united states! can you believe it? oh the hypocrisy!! - do you think those undocumented irish might be “economic migrants” of the same type that are so reviled here? i wonder if any are “abusing” american citizenship law… whatever. i have nothing against immigrants (undocumented or otherwise) to the united states. (edit: in fact, i welcome them!) but it is ironic that irish politicians are crying foul over “economic migrants”, “citizenship tourists”, and “queue jumpers” in ireland, while asking the united states to allow undocumented irish immigrants to attain legal status. (or essentially, if we use the language that is often used in ireland to refer to immigrants: “economically migrate” and “queue jump” their way ahead of “legitimate” migrants.)
on another note these are former U.S. senator bruce morrison’s views on the citizenship referendum: Morrison joins citizenship fight. bruce morrison is responsible for getting the U.S. to grant 48,000 GREEN CARDS (not “work permits” as the irish times incorrectly reports) for undocumented irish immigrants in the 1980s. the irish times also carried an op-ed by bruce morrison today, but unfortunately they didn’t put the article online.