Irish & Dutch: A round table discussion about dreams and challenges that face immigrant entrepreneurs in Ireland
I had the honour to meet King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima in a round table discussion held by Dogpatch Labs. The topics revolved around Immigration and Entrepreneurship in Ireland.
Why Ireland?
I am a migrant. A forced migrant who fled the war in Syria in 2012. I moved to what I thought would be a new life in Egypt but ended up getting stuck in a country torn apart between revolutions and coups. I found myself shortly being identified as an “illegal migrant” just because Egypt stopped issuing visas for Syrians. Countries started turning us down, one after the other.
No visas for Syrians. No jobs for Syrians. Sound familiar? History never fails in repeating itself.
It was during desperate times when my luck turned upside down, receiving a job offer from the country that exports luck. Ireland.
When King Willem-Alexander asked me about the Visa program that helped me move to Ireland along with my husband, I remembered the hardest decision I was forced to make. Leaving without him. While the Research Visa program saved my life and gave me an alternative to crossing the sea on a boat, it denied me the right to be joined by a dependent due to a threshold on the salary of the visa holder, which in my case was very low. And as hard as it was, we had to split in the hope of reuniting one day. Luckily, after a few months, I managed to prove that I have sufficient funds to support his move to Ireland and he was granted a visa. But although he had his own freelancing work, he was not allowed to work nor open a bank account on a stamp 3 visa. This was recently changed allowing stamp 3 visa holders to work [Source].
The round continued with my colleagues talking about their experiences moving to Ireland.
Adaku Ezeudo talked about her struggles as an overqualified black woman from Nigeria trying to work in the financial industry then moving to the charity work to finally settle as a diversity consultant with her own startup, PhoenixRize. Parsa Ghaffari spoke about his choice of Ireland as a base for his startup Aylien and the positive experience he had while successfully establishing it under the entrepreneur's visa program. Andreea Wade also spoke about her startup opening.io, specialized in intelligence recruitment automation and the startup communities she helped to create in Ireland.
John Dennehy spoke about the real-life challenges he faced through his company Hire Hive when trying to enable the refugees living in the direct provision technically, to be hired by tech companies. Faye Walsh-Drouillard, a migrant from the US and founder of The Giving Circle spoke about how the low tax rate influenced her decision in moving to Ireland and how the great hospitality and friendly attitude she receives from the Irish although she found the regular question: “Where are you from?” Is different than what she is used to hearing in her country where people usually asked: “What do you do?”
Coming from Syria, I get mixed reactions when I am asked that question in Ireland. People usually feel pity and start remembering all the images they see on the media about Syrians. I get reactions like “You don’t look Syrian” or ” But how do you speak English so well?”. I also get comments like “It must be an enormous cultural shock for you!”. But my favourite was “Where do you hide your bombs?!” which was meant to be as a joke. A terrible one.
The queen ended the session with a final question about an unwritten rule that surprised us and that we didn’t know before moving to Ireland. It made me think of a written one that was not at all known to most of the people I met.
Because Ireland is not part of the Schengen area, non-EU migrants (mostly from Asia) have to apply for a visa every time they travel inside the EU. What is considered to Europeans as a hop on a train or a short flight consumes a lot of time, money and effort from migrants to achieve. From securing an early enough appointment at the designated embassy to getting all the required documents including paying for a non-refundable return ticket and accommodation. In addition to taking a day off to travel to the embassy for those living outside Dublin and then waiting till the Visa is issued which could take 2 weeks. All of that to get a single entry or a 10 days multi-entry visa within 3 months.
Due to this, I have missed out on several opportunities to attend important meetings or speak at conferences when the time notice was less than two months. It is even a more complicated and longer process when it comes to visiting the UK. Over 5 years in Ireland and I still haven’t crossed the borders to Belfast.
The discussion, moderated gracefully by Liz McCarthy, gave me and the diverse group of skilled migrants to speak even for a little about our journeys, hopes and concerns. Hoping this could have some influence on the system and help future immigrants starting their own stories in Ireland.
More on the royal visit: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/dutch-royals-told-housing-crisis-holding-back-irish-tech-sector-1.3923732
