Labour market integration of international protection applicants in Ireland

Abstract

In mid-2018, international protection applicants were granted permission to access the labour market in Ireland. This followed a landmark Supreme Court ruling in NHV v. the Minister for Justice and Equality, which overturned the prohibition on work for applicants. Between mid-2018 and the end of 2022, 12,180 first-time permissions for labour market access were granted to international protection applicants in Ireland. The granting of access to the labour market marked a significant change in how Ireland provides reception to applicants.This study examines the integration of international protection applicants into the labour market in Ireland over the past five years (2017)(2018)(2019)(2020)(2021)(2022). It assesses how such access has been implemented, the key policy debates, the legal framework, good practices and the ongoing challenges to integration.Currently, an international protection applicant can apply for labour market access six months after lodging an application, as long as a first-instance recommendation has not been made on their application and the delay cannot be attributed to the applicant. If their application is approved, the applicant is issued with a labour market access permission. This is valid for 12 months and can be renewed as long as a final decision has not been taken on the applicant's international protection application. An applicant can enter employment or be self-employed, and these are not regulated differently. In terms of sectoral restrictions, while international protection applicants can work in most sectors, they cannot work in sectors that are public bodies, including the civil service, or in some cases, bodies primarily funded by public funding. DATA ON LABOUR MARKET ACCESSData on labour market access by applicants is collected by the Labour Market Access Unit (LMAU) in the Department of Justice. These are some of the key findings on access between July 2018 and December 2022.• Approximately 80 per cent of applications for first-time labour market access permissions were granted. The remainder of applications were either refused or 'deemed closed', where there was no response from the applicant to correspondence from the LMAU.• A labour market access permission is valid for 12 months and can be renewed. Most applications for renewals were granted (94 per cent).• In terms of the number of applicants in employment, while the available data are limited, 5,481 applicants informed the LMAU they were in employment in the period examined, which is approximately 45 per cent of all applicants that were granted labour market access permissions. Not viii | Integration of international protection applicants into the labour market in Ireland all applicants, or their employers, return their forms, which may indicate that applicants who are granted permission to work may subsequently face difficulties in securing employment in practice.x | Integration of international protection applicants into the labour market in Ireland protection applicants into the labour market, with short-term fu...