Social Affairs

Workers in critical sectors ‘forced to choose’ between providing for family and being with them

Campaigners call for end to year-long wait and salary threshold for bringing family into country

Healthcare assistant Vimbainashe Chingono from Zimbabwe, pictured with her son Kyrill, is questioning her decision to remain in Ireland if her family cannot join her

Kitty Holland
Sun Mar 17 2024 - 11:35

Thousands of workers are being “forced to choose” between providing for their families and being with them, the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI) has said.

The MRCI is calling for an end to the “discriminatory” policy which allows some migrant workers, from outside the European Economic Area in “critical” sectors, to bring their families with them to Ireland immediately but stipulates those on “general” work permits must wait a year to apply and meet salary thresholds before being considered for family reunification.

These thresholds, of about €30,000 per year to bring a spouse; €40,500 to bring one child; €50,000 for two children; and €60,000 to bring three children, are beyond the reach of thousands of workers, the MRCI said.

General work-permit holders are treated “not as whole people, with emotional and family needs, but just as units of labour”, MRCI campaigns manager Neil Bruton said.

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Critical skills workers, according to the Department of Enterprise and Employment, include dozens of professions under 23 headings. In health, they include pharmacists, radiographers, audiologists and dietitians.

Healthcare assistants like Vimbainashe Chingono from Zimbabwe, who has been working in a nursing home in Cork for just more than a year, are considered “general” rather than “critical”.

Chingono said she responded to a recruitment drive by an Irish agency to provide a “better future” for her two-year-old son Kyrill.

“It is a tough decision to leave the family, but I want a better future for my child and the opportunities are better in Europe,” Chingono said. Her husband works too, on a low income, and Kyrill is taken care of by her mother.

Chingono was told she could apply for her husband and son to join her in Ireland after one year. While this is true, her income of “about €27,000″ leaves her far short of the eligibility threshold.

“Being a healthcare assistant is passion, a calling for me. I am caring for elderly people. I feel I am contributing so much. It is sad that that is not being recognised,” Chingono said.

“I work 12-hour shifts back-to-back and on-call. Then I come home and I am alone and just thinking and worrying about my family.” Chingono tries to call her son twice a week, but as Zimbabwe is two hours ahead he is often in bed already when she gets home from work.

“The work is very demanding emotionally and we need someone to give us some support and love after that. When I come home, I take a shower and then wallow in my loneliness. So, it is just difficult,” Chingono said.

Family holidays, like St Patrick’s Day and Mother’s Day last week, are especially difficult. “When I call Kyrill he is confused sometimes. He does not know who I am. I am relieved he is with someone he is comfortable with, but for me it is heartbreaking. Sometimes I think, ‘Is this worth it? Should I quit and go home?’ I am away but he is still my child,” Chingono said.

She hopes a review under way of the family reunification scheme will consider workers like her and their families. “I am just hoping they are going to hear our pleas. We are taking care of people and their families, but we don’t have ours,” she said.

A spokesman for the Department of Justice said the regime was necessary to ensure workers who bring families here can support them. “The policy is currently under review and the department is continuing to engage with the MRCI, and other relevant stakeholders, as part of this process,” the spokesman said.

“In particular we are prioritising consideration of the issue of whether spouses and partners of employment permit holders should have the right to work in Ireland and we expect to conclude that part of the review shortly.”

Kitty Holland

Kitty Holland

Kitty Holland is Social Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times

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