BARRIERS TO ENTRY FOR MIGRANTS IN BUSINESS AND EMPLOYMENT
17.02.12
Recognition of Professional Qualifications
Many highly skilled Immigrants work below their skill-set or are unemployed due to difficulties in having their Professional Qualifications recognised in Ireland, as proven in the AMRI Report 2010.
Killian Forde, CEO of the Integration Centre said, “There is a need for Professional Representative Organisations to work more closely with the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland (NQAI) to develop protocols which accelerate validation.”
“It is time to start thinking outside the box and work together to create the opportunities necessary to kick-start our economy.”
“The lack of conversion courses available to up-grade qualifications to the Irish standard, as well as limited opportunities for migrants to acquire a sufficient level of professional English, are barriers to the successful use of skill-sets which could be overcome without excessive cost.”
“Migrant specific issues are not always catered for by employment support services, it is time for policy makers to understand that a degree of outreach now will have major benefits in the future.”
“We work alongside immigrants facing these issues on a daily basis, one such example is Zainab Alamgir, a Barrister in Litigation, who came to Ireland from Pakistan with her Husband in 2008. She has a post-graduate diploma from bar-school in England and 18 months experience working as a barrister in Pakistan.” Her story is told here:
Zainab has found the lack of information on how to enter the legal profession in Ireland highly challenging and the Professional Bodies unhelpful in dealing with her circumstances.
She was in touch with the Law Society of Ireland and thought her qualification, from England, might be directly translatable to the Irish system but it wasn’t.
Her case is unusual. The Law Society had not dealt with someone in her position before so she was volley-balled between different officers for months. They don’t recognise her work in Pakistan at all.
Zainab has so far been unable to gain entry to the Law Society of Ireland, though she continues with her preparation for the FE-1 exams. She has been unable to make full use of her professional qualifications and is now desperate to find any employment.
“I love practising law”, she said, “when I am in court it’s like the best I can ever be. It was very hard for me to accept that I wouldn’t be able to do that every day. If I had accepted this earlier, then it would have been easier for me to branch out and be happy doing work in related fields.”
Mr Forde continued, “Having people work below their skill-set devalues that skill in the Irish economic setting. This is a problem for immigrants but it affects society as a whole and the government needs to address the issue.”