Migrants taking up voluntary work in the community

A LARGE number of migrants to this country are engaged in voluntary work in the community, a meeting of Meath County Council has been told.

County councillors were given an update on the Louth and Meath Joint Migrant Integration Strategy 2019-2022 at last week's meeting of the council.

The council was told that some people wanted to learn the English language for conversational reasons while others wanted it so that they could move towards employment opportunities. Minister for Justice Helen McEntee launched the language programme in Kells after it was developed by Meath and Louth county councils. The new strategy aims to build on the National Migration Integration Strategy 2017-2020 which has a vision that migrants and those of migrant origin are facilitated to play a full role in Irish society.

The strategy is focused on 37 actions including language training and acquisition; education and training; social inclusion; employment and pathways to work; active civic and civil participation; and social inclusion expressing culture and identity addressing discrimination.

Independent Cllr Nick Killian said that he had run a “Failte Isteach” programme where migrants could gather for conversational English.

Fine Gael Cllr Yemi Adenuga said she was delighted to see the language programme up and running. She asked what stakeholders were involved in it and wanted to know what role the councillors could have in that.

Officials said that it was hoped to roll out the strategy to the schools in both counties.