Immigrant workers are not the State's flexible friends

For some time now, I've had a reasonably clear idea about what I am doing in this country. First, I came here to study. Then, after a while, I joined the ranks of working people.

But now, I am surprised to discover, I have a far more important role. One that makes clear once and for all that I'm not just here to write the odd column and feature, and hang out at First Tuesday. No, I am more worthy than that: it turns out that I am also a "safety valve" for all of you as well.

Actually, I should not feel surprised at all. I now realise I already had been told I held this distinguished position on behalf of the State several times before. I guess it just hadn't really sunk in until last Thursday, when my role was restated once again by the woman who has decided that this is my fate: the Tβnaiste, Ms Harney.

You see, she has decided to emphasise yet again that "foreign nationals" (of which I am, inarguably, one) are flexible friends when it comes to working in this State. Although unemployment remains at a slim 3.5 per cent, there's an election coming and Ms Harney wants to make sure that all of you know that I, and all the other 59,999 foreign nationals who were given work here over the past few years, are expendable. We are here to take the blows, a dedicated army of sacrificial employees who know our place - which is elsewhere, if the downturn continues.

We are, as she says, a "safety valve" for the State. We can give up the jobs that, in many cases, Irish-based companies begged us to take. Jobs that could not be filled because there just weren't enough Irish candidates for them. And, sometimes, not enough people here with the right "skills" (as the phrase goes), especially for the employee-hungry technology industry. Or simply, many here just didn't want to do so many of those "unskilled" jobs in the service industries any more.

Whatever the reasons, we are a buffer between you and a return to 1985. I'm not quite sure yet how this would work, though: would we be rounded up and marched down to take whatever airline emerges out of these hard(er) times back to our land of origin? Would we just be thrown out?

What a curious state of affairs, especially since Ms Harney has, over many years, proven her business smarts. I have seen her rivet Silicon Valley audiences; she can be extremely impressive at the podium, speaking off the cuff. She seems fully aware that the tech industry remains a base, sound, and a central part of the nation's economic life.

Then why these quite bizarre pronouncements on "foreign nationals"? Let's begin by immediately dismissing the vaguely disturbing overtones of these statements, which could be seen to send soothing messages out to the petty ranks within the State who wouldn't mind seeing quite a few of certain kinds of economic immigrant (if you know what I mean) sent back home.

I'm sure that's not at all what is meant, although when I first heard the phrase used, that's kind of what it sounded like, just a little bit, to me. Maybe, if someone in an opposition party had questioned these sentiments when they were first aired months ago, this point would have been clarified. And honest, I don't think that was what was meant, and I know the Government has finally started making some official statements on racism (opposing it, that is).

But nonetheless I wondered a bit about all those Irish people who accepted those thousands of Morrison and Donnelly visas, where they could spend the rest of their lives in the United States, even though at the time the US was in the midst of a bad economic slump. I don't remember the Irish Government giving the visas back, saying: "Hey, that's OK, we know you need all your jobs for your American people".

Nor do I remember the US government saying: "Oops, we were kidding! We need those visas back so that Americans stay employed, but we know your Irish people won't mind being our safety valve! We'll just ship you back!"

As a matter of fact, the US either gives people full, lifetime working visas (green cards) or gives them H1B visas, which have a set time period. They don't revoke either in tougher times.

All this makes me wonder about all the companies in the Republic that still need employees, especially the highly skilled employees badly needed by the tech industry - so much so that Intel, looking a decade down the line, is already worried. The company filed a submission to a State education committee questioning whether the current approach to science instruction in Irish schools will inspire enough students or train them adequately to become tomorrow's technology employees and innovators.

And if I were Intel or Iona or Smartforce or Microsoft, I'd really be concerned about potential employees abroad hearing that there's no job security for foreign nationals over here; that if there's a slump you might get sent back in a year or two. I can't imagine that's a real strong selling point for the human resources people. Nor does it seem to fit with the recruitment patter of all those semi-state agencies, who go abroad and tout the advantages of working or basing your company in the Republic. Just as long as you understand you're expendable.

The more I think about it, the more I conclude that being told I am a safety valve for the potential economic woes of a nation is unbelievably patronising. More, I think it is appalling that such statements are made if they are only intended as a political sop. I think they are damaging to the global image of the country, a raging headache for the indigenous and multinational companies trying to recruit in a challenging global market, and unbecoming of a nation pitching itself as a small but mature and productive part of that market.

klillington@irish-times.ie