Immigration and Citizenship Law by John Stanley

• Date: 01 January 2019

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Immigration and Citizenship Law

ROSEMARY HENNIGAN*

Immigration and Citizenship Law by John Stanley (Round Hall Press, 2017)

Immigration, and the regulation of entry to the State, is a complex and highly

political area of law. It goes to the heart of questions around citizenship, statehood,

and what it means to belong to a particular territory. A person’s immigration

status determines not only the terms under which they are entitled to remain in a

particular jurisdiction, but their entitlement to a host of other rights – employment,

education, and social welfare, amongst others. In this context, the publication of

Immigration and Citizenship Law by John Stanley is an enormously useful resource

for practitioners and policymakers alike.

e ability of the State to determine who may and who may not enter its boundaries

is a fundamental aspect of sovereignty in the traditional Westphalian meaning

of statehood. e State, as sovereign, has exclusive jurisdiction over its territory

and can devise a set of rules governing entry. However, in the modern world,

particularly in the European Union, this Westphalian understanding of statehood

can appear remote from the reality of how people live their lives – crossing borders

with great regularity, while recognising and enjoying ancestry from other parts of

the globe. e Irish diaspora is an example, with an estimated 70 million people

claiming Irish descent across the world.1

Indeed, Article 2 of Bunreacht na hÉireann places recognition of the diaspora

within its formulation of the Irish nation, stating: ‘[t]he Irish nation cherishes its

special anity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural

identity and heritage’.

Emigration has been a deeply embedded part of Irish identity and history for

centuries, but it is only recently that we have become a country of net inward

migration.2 With a growing population which included 30,900 non-EU nationals

in April 2018, the operation of our immigration laws is relevant to an increasingly

large population of people living here.

* Rosemary Hennigan is a Policy and Advocacy Ocer at the Irish Refugee Council. Prior to this,

she trained with McCann FitzGerald Solicitors and worked as an Associate on the public and

administrative law team. Rosemary holds an LL.B. from Trinity College Dublin and an LL.M. from

the University of Pennsylvania, which she attended as a Fulbright Scholar.

1 See Department of Foreign Aairs, ‘Irish Emigration Patterns and Citizens Abroad’ (Minister’s

Brief, June 2017) <https://www.dfa.ie/media/dfa/alldfawebsitemedia/newspress/publications/

ministersbrief-june2017/1--Global-Irish-in-Numbers.pdf> accessed 7 April 2019.

2 See CSO ‘Population and Migration Estimates April 2018’ (CSO statistical release, 28 August 2018)

<https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/pme/populationandmigrationestimatesapril

2018/> accessed 7 April 2019.