What others bring! What we give! Reviewing the gender sensitivity of the Irish migration legal framework

Abstract

The Irish migration legal framework (MLF) attracts economic migrants to fuel the national economy in the era of globalization. The approach closely aligns with the key prisms of domestic politics, institutionalism, and neoliberalism, which focuses on increasing the number of work permit holders rather than operationalizing their employment, social and gender needs to be met through concrete legal measures, so that they could enter the country and engage in employment without experiencing exploitation. The paper underlines the interplay between relevant legislation, government officials, employers, and migrants (work permit holders) that determine the ‘employer-sensitive’ or ‘gender-sensitive’ approach of the Irish MLF. The selected clauses empower government officials and employers to interpret them through their lenses, utilize migrant human resources as per their preferences, and convince them to accept conditional employment. We draw inferences based on multiple data sources, e.g. visa applicant data from the Department of Justice (DoJ), in-depth interviews with migration experts and migrants (work permit holders), and relevant legislation. Findings reveal that the Irish MLF is ‘employer-sensitive’, which neglects the human rights of migrants in two layers; (i) the legislation dealing with work permits and visas denies the right of entry at the beginning, and (ii) employers can take advantage of certain legal clauses to exploit migrants at workplaces.

Keywords

• Migrants
• work permit
• work visa
• employment
• exploitation
• legal Framework