Generation Emigration

Time is running out for 22-year-old Lauren Farrell.  In May, her student visa will expire, renews it orobtains a green card, she will have to leave America after living here for four years.

“I love New York” Farrell says, who moved to the city in 2008 to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, “but I honestly don’t know about staying.  I just don’t know if it’s possible.”

Farrell is one of thousands of Irish who recently left the exhausted economy of home to seek better opportunity abroad.  According to the Irish Times, 76,400 people emigrated from Ireland in the first half of 2011, 40,200 of which were Irish citizens.

Kate Devlin, a 22-year-old Trinity College graduate from Dublin has watched as one by one, her friends have packed their bags and moved away.  This summer, she will follow in their footsteps and move to New York. Kate hopes to secure a graduate visa, which is issued to college graduates from a selection of countries, allowing them to work in the United States for at least one year.

“Dublin is just a barren place now” Devlin says.  “All of my friends are such go-getters that they’ve left to see the world and pursue ambitions and get jobs.  There’s definitely still a young Dublin around but my friends aren’t really here anymore so I knew I’d end up leaving too.”

The United States is one of five popular destinations for Irish emigrants, along with Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand.  The Irish Times reports that in 2011, The United States issued 17,555 non-immigrant visas to Irish citizens.   California, New York and Massachusetts are the three most popular points of destination.

The tradition of Irish immigration to American dates back to the 1800s.  The famine ships during the Great Irish Famine carried over one million Irish to American shores. 

Today, however, Ireland is not one of the top 20 leading countries of immigration to America.  According to a report conducted by the US government’s Office of Immigration Statistics, there were 12.6 million legal permanent residents in America in 2010.  The biggest contributing country was Mexico (3.3million), followed by The Philippines, China, India and the Dominican Republic.

Ireland’s comparatively low number of immigrants allows Irish citizens to enter a visa lottery for a diversity visa.  Each year, the United States issues 55,000 diversity visas to a random selection of people drawn from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.   Securing one of these visas means securing a green card, which unlike many of the other forms of American Visas (there are 33 in total) permits you to work in whatever field you want.  It also eliminates the tedious and sometimes expensive process of trying to obtain a green card through the American immigration system.

Conor McGrady, a professor at The New School and originally from Northern Ireland, secured his green card in 2006, but admits the process was difficult.

“I got my card through marriage, which was straightforward enough, but the process was terrible,” McGrady says.

It took 5 years for McGrady’s green card to be processed and approved.  His application was lost and eventually turned up in Missouri and post 9/11 heightened security slowed the process.  McGrady hired a lawyer to help his chances and speed the process along.

“My sense is that if you don't apply though a lawyer your application is not taken seriously,” he says.  “I've never encountered government bureaucracy like that which I encountered through the Immigration and Naturalization Services.  There were multiple finger printing sessions, endless hours of waiting in government offices from the Bronx to Brooklyn and medical exams.”

The last part of the process involved an interview in Long Island where McGrady and his wife had to prove that their marriage was legitimate.   In 2006 he received his green card, allowing him to work where he pleases without having to have sponsorship from an employer and approval from the government.

Green cards last ten years, so McGrady will have to apply to renew his in 2016.

“I’m dreading having to renew it,” he says.

For many of the Irish in America, securing a green card is not a realistic opportunity.  Lauren Farrell’s best chance to stay in New York is through an artist’s visa, which would allow her to work as an actress.  This however, has its limitations.

“I don’t know if I’ll apply,” she says.  “Actors Equity, which is the union that represents stage actors, doesn’t recognize visas of any kind.  They only employ citizens or green card holders.  So if I stay, on any kind of visa, I can’t ever get hired for a Broadway.”