By NiallO’Dowd

Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern made it official last week that the Irish government will seek a bilateral deal with the American government which will allow for an exchange of employment visas between both countries.

The details have still to be worked out, but there is little doubt that the move will transform the relationship between the two countries if it succeeds.

It is important to note that even if immigration reform passes in the new Congress it will primarily affect those living here illegally, and will not allow for a noticeable increase in Irish being able to emigrate to America, under its current manifestation. That is why a bilateral deal is necessary as well.

There is talk of a guest worker program in a new visa bill, but even that would not much help the Irish emigrate here legally as Ireland would be swamped by other, far larger countries in the application process. What is needed is some type of bilateral deal.

As we have seen with the annual diversity visa program, which allocates 50,000 green cards on a worldwide basis –- a program which Irish Americans initiated back in the 1980s — only a handful of those visas go to Ireland because of the sheer crush of numbers from far larger countries who apply.

For example, for the most recent diversity visa numbers, Morocco won over 4,000 and Ireland got 160. A fair question would be which country has contributed more to the U.S. over the past two centuries?

Currently, it is almost impossible for Irish people to emigrate legally to the U.S. In the last year Ireland received only 2,000 out of over 1.2 million green cards issued.

It is still possible for highly skilled Irish to come to the U.S., but then only on time limited H-1B visas, which are not considered permanent.

How we arrived at this state of affairs is a long story and not worth recounting here, but suffice to say that it is a pressing need for both Ireland and the U.S. that a reasonable immigration flow between both countries is put in place. Ireland should never lose its access to America for any number of reasons, including historical, economic and political.

But Americans also have great difficulty accessing Ireland. That has been obvious since the Irish government-sponsored jobs fair held in New York last month which attracted thousands of American job seekers, most of whom could not work legally in Ireland at the present time.

It is obvious that both Ireland and the U.S. would benefit from such an arrangement which would allow for a flow of labor between two countries that have so many bonds and shared interests.

The election results last week provided a powerful boost to proponents of immigration reform, and it appears that 2007 will now be the year of reckoning for this issue.

Through the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform the Irish community has been to the forefront of the efforts to win comprehensive reform for the Irish undocumented.

The election result was a great step in the right direction last week, but we can take nothing for granted. Already we can be sure opponents of immigration reform are gearing up to try and block a deal in the next Congress.

Passage of an immigration reform bill and a bilateral deal between the two governments would be the best possible outcome for the Irish community in the U.S. Now more than ever, Irish Americans need to redouble their lobbying efforts to make sure that this happens.

Without such reforms, the Irish American community as we know it is in grave danger of extinction. We simply cannot let this happen.