Office of the Minister of State for Integration
Oifig an Aire Stáit Lánpháirtíochta

Welcome to the website of the Office of the Minister of State for Integration.
I hope that you find it useful and informative.

This Office has been set up to develop, drive and co-ordinate integration policy across Government Departments so that our immigrants are fully integrated into Irish society. The Irish people have vast personal experience of the challenges and opportunities that emigration and integration present as traditionally we were a country of emigration ourselves. Therefore, as a result of our own history, we understand emigration and the problems that emigrants can face. Uprooting your life, finding work, accessing services and building friendships in a new country can be a major challenge, even without the added complexities of cultural or language differences.	aaaaMary White T.D., a Minister for Integration

In the 1990s, we saw a new, transformed Ireland emerge as a result of the economic success of the Celtic Tiger years. We became a destination-of-choice and over the past decade or so, many migrants have come here to live, work and study. By examining the official figures, we can clearly see the extent and indeed speed of this change - in 2002, approximately 5.7% of Ireland’s population of just under 4 million were immigrants while the 2006 Census figures show that over 10% of our population are newcomers and this represents an astonishing increase of 87% over the four year period. It is no overstatement to say that this has been a phenomenal demographic and social change for a small country to absorb over a relatively short timeframe. The 2006 Census figures show that we have over 420,000 migrants here who have come from 188 different countries and these people have a wide diversity of cultural and religious backgrounds. The level of migration we have experienced has brought both benefits and challenges but it is generally agreed that the benefits to Ireland have been substantial. Over the coming years, I expect that inward migration will continue to contribute to our labour force growth but that the level of immigration will not be as high as in recent years. Read Less...

[	Minister White is greeted by the Mayor of Galway City at a roundtable meeting of the Galway Intercultural Strategy Working Group and the Galway Intercultural Forum