TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/032089/03208900.047

Text File | 1992-09-23 | 5.6 KB | 109 lines

                                                                                NATION, Page 30

The Re-Greening of America


A new wave of Irish immigrants is showing its muscle


    In scores of U.S. cities this week, Americans of Irish
descent will celebrate St. Patrick's Day by donning green hats,
marching through the streets shouting "Erin go bragh!" and
proudly proclaiming their Irishness to anyone who will listen.
Yet as many as 100,000 natives of Ireland, newly arrived in the
U.S., will hesitate to join the parades. They live in the
fearful shadow world of the illegal alien.

    Like their more numerous Hispanic and Asian counterparts,
the undocumented "new Irish" switch jobs often, worry about the
costs of sickness without Medicaid, and can do little but gnash
their teeth when family crises occur in their homeland, because
to leave the U.S. might mean never to return. "You often find
them trying to put on New York accents while they serve you in
a restaurant, just so they can meld into the background and not
be found out," says Ray O'Hanlon, the national editor of the New
York City-based Irish Echo newspaper. "This is rather sad."

    But unlike the flood of Third World immigrants, the Irish
come with advantages: white skin, good education, a knowledge
of the language and a talent for politics that would make
Boston's legendary Mayor James Michael Curley beam with pride.
On the East Coast, they have revitalized neighborhoods deserted
by their American cousins. Local shops sell everything from soda
bread to Irish candies and bacon. The bleachers are filled for
Irish football at Gaelic Park in the Bronx and Dilboy Field near
Boston. In New York's Irish neighborhoods, pubs are packed on
weekends. "At home in County Offaly, the bars are empty," says
Mary Cahill, 26, who has been in America two years. "Most of the
young people are in the U.S., Britain or Australia."

    The surge of new arrivals began in 1982, propelled by a
debt-plagued Irish economy in which unemployment soared to
almost 19% last year, sometimes reaching twice that for young
people under 25. Even Ireland's Prime Minister Charles Haughey
seemed to encourage the exodus.

    Most of the Irish arriving in the U.S. have simply stayed
on once their six-month tourist or work visas expired. They
insist they are in America by stealth because there was no way
for them to gain legal entry. The newcomers argue that the U.S.
immigration act of 1965 discriminated against the Irish and
other Europeans by giving preference to applicants who had
family members legally in the U.S. Since Europeans had not been
moving in large numbers to America for many years, they were all
but locked out.  The non-Europeans, mostly Asians and Latin
Americans, used the family preference to create a
relative-to-relative chain that accounts for more than 90% of
the annual inflow of 600,000 immigrants. In 1987, for example,
601,516 people were granted permanent U.S. residence; only 3,060
of them were Irish.

    The hard-fought 1986 immigration reform also bypassed the
Irish aliens. Aimed mostly at the U.S. southern border, it
granted amnesty to foreigners who could show they were in the
U.S. before 1982. That was just before the latest Irish influx
began, cutting off these new arrivals.

    These perceived injustices have unified Irish Americans,
both legal and alien, in a way seldom seen in the often
contentious community. In New York this week a bishop from
Ireland will lead a Mass of Hope in St. Patrick's Cathedral for
the new immigrants. An Irish Immigration Reform Movement has
created chapters in more than a dozen cities to seek changes in
U.S. immigration laws, including the right of the illegals to
seek permanent residency. It employs a full-time lobbyist in
Washington.

    When the Irish get together, many U.S. politicians listen.
Boston's Mayor Raymond Flynn last year announced that "the
welcome mat is out" for Irish aliens, and has created an office
to provide immigrants with legal aid. The administration of New
York Mayor Ed Koch declared that the Irish aliens "have nothing
to fear in utilizing fully the services" of the city. New York
even granted $30,000 to help finance a counseling hot line for
Irish immigrants.

    At the federal level, the Irish lobby won a fight in 1987
to create 10,000 special visas for the 36 countries that the
1965 act treated unfairly. Awarded in a lottery that gave
priority to those who applied first, 40% of the visas went to
the Irish, who had been closely tracking the process. Last year
Congress decided to make an additional 30,000 of these lottery
visas available in the next two years, using leftover
applications from the first drawing. Since the Irish sent in a
disproportionate number of entries, they are expected to do well
again. Yet another lottery for 20,000 visas will be held later
this year, drawing from new applicants.

    Still struggling with the touchy question of who should be
admitted to the U.S., Congress will consider a bill this year
under which 120,000 of the annual allotted visas would be linked
to such considerations as education, profession, work experience
and English-language capability. Although the Irish reform group
is ardently supporting it, the bill has some opponents, who
claim it is elitist. The Statue of Liberty, notes Massachusetts
Congressman Barney Frank, does not say, "Send us your upwardly
mobile." On the other hand, argues Pat Hurley, co-founder of the
Irish Reform Movement, "the attributes that we have --
education, skills and ability to communicate well -- are what
America wants." To say nothing of the political ties.