Breford: From Boom to Bust?! Irish integration policy at the time of the recent economic recession

However, as the latest outcomes of the Migrant Integration Policy Index (2011) illustrate, this policy sector also follows the pattern of going from boom to bust...During the last years, the Irish government has been keen to voice its will to learn from other countries and to take on board European policy such as the Common Basic Principles on Integration (Office of the Minister for Integration 2008a, 30). However, looking at the findings of the Migrant Integration Policy Index this seems to have been a mere lip service. Rather than actually aiming at the development of a consistent framework for the area of integration policy, the issue of immigrant integration in Irish politics seems to follow the economic cycle: During boom times it received increasing attention, during times of recession, it is dropped off the political agenda...Overall, all of these developments support one of the major findings of the Migrant Integration Policy Index (2011) which states that, in Ireland, “[p]olitical will is needed to adopt the necessary legislation for cost-effective, coherent and legal procedures [in the area of integration policy].” On the contrary, steps taken by the new government clearly show that this political will is currently not present, as the area of integration was removed from the political agenda as a priority. However, if this step was taken by the new government due to “a tacit assumption that migrants will return home ‘when times get tough’ [research has shown that] the latter could prove a fallacy.” (Krings et al. 2009). 
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