Working and living in a country illegally

Fake News · 01-12-2017 11:02pm #1

This seemed to be quite common with Irish people in the past. I grew up with some guys back home and about 5 or 6 of them moved to New York when they turned 18. They're all tradesmen and they've been living there about 12 years now with no visas. This is common with immigrants in the US but I'm not sure about other countries, such as Australia.
Do you know any illegals?

Berserker · 01-12-2017 11:26pm

Knew a good few in New York, a good number of them were Irish. Most of them came over on holiday visas. It's a tricky life, you can get caught at any time and kicked out of the country. A good number of those people had partners and children in the USA.

Nabber · 01-12-2017 11:40pm

I knew a guy working and claiming the dole.... When I’d met this lad he would tell me of his colleague who was working illegally.

The dole cheat would tell me how much he disliked illegal workers...

Little did he know I hated him. I just kept to myself and continued dealing drugs. I’m not one to sponge off the state....

MilesMorales1 · 01-12-2017 11:45pm

Nice try border force officer.

HalloweenJack · 01-12-2017 11:57pm

I did in Brazil for a bit. Very stressful experience, its kind of a vicious cycle: you can't get a visa without a stable job, you can't get a stable job without a visa. I got really paranoid too, it wasn't a good deal.

Mrs OBumble · 02-12-2017 12:30am

There's a lot to be said for dawn raids.

Oldtree · 02-12-2017 1:26am

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

Nice try border force officer.

Shhhhh say nottin, it's Donald!

ceadaoin. · 02-12-2017 2:41am

Berserker wrote: »

Knew a good few in New York, a good number of them were Irish. Most of them came over on holiday visas. It's a tricky life, you can get caught at any time and kicked out of the country. A good number of those people had partners and children in the USA.

It's one thing to do this when you're young and single, but I don't know how people like those mentioned above can ever relax and enjoy their lives knowing that they could be deported and separated from their kids at any time and never be allowed back to see them. All it takes is one malicious ex partner or acquaintance for this to happen.

B.A._Baracus · 02-12-2017 2:58am

I knew one guy who was in Brazil on his passport (By that I mean he was staying over there for the max 60 days he was allowed type thing) but he was on the social over here.
He would get his friend to western union his payment each week. I assume he was throwing him a few bob to do so. This was 2012 ish. So shortly before they brought in the picture id social services card. cant imagine you can get away with that now.

On the subject of working illegally tho... I don't really care even if someone does it over here. Long as they are not breaking the law then who really cares.
How many jobs do not ask for your pps number? ... cash in hand ones so it's not like someone illegally here is taking a job from someone who works in a bank, warehouse, pennys etc etc.

Mena · 02-12-2017 7:43am

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

On the subject of working illegally tho... I don't really care even if someone does it over here. Long as they are not breaking the law then who really cares.
How many jobs do not ask for your pps number? ... cash in hand ones so it's not like someone illegally here is taking a job from someone who works in a bank, warehouse, pennys etc etc.

Don’t mind them working illegally as long as they’re not breaking the law. Well allllllriiiighty then.

Cognitive dissonance at its best haha ( but I know what you mean).

tigger123 · 02-12-2017 7:50am

I think when people don't have a visa here, they're illegal immigrants, but when we don't have a visa in the US, we're undocumented. Think that's how it works.

Jawgap · 02-12-2017 7:51am

Worked in the US for a time in the 1980s....as an illegal.

If I did the same thing now I wouldn't be an "illegal" I'd be an "undocumented" Irish immigrant

B.A._Baracus · 02-12-2017 5:01pm

Mena wrote: »

Don’t mind them working illegally as long as they’re not breaking the law. Well allllllriiiighty then.

Cognitive dissonance at its best haha ( but I know what you mean).

If you knew what I meant then why the smart comment :pac:

biko · 02-12-2017 5:10pm

Deport them, they are taking jobs from Mexicans.

Chrongen · 02-12-2017 5:27pm

Nabber wrote: »

I knew a guy working and claiming the dole.... When I’d met this lad he would tell me of his colleague who was working illegally.

The dole cheat would tell me how much he disliked illegal workers...

Little did he know I hated him. I just kept to myself and continued dealing drugs. I’m not one to sponge off the state....

:pac:

I feel your pain, bro. I hate pricks like that, cutting into the allowance I get for non-existent kids.

Conall Cernach · 02-12-2017 5:34pm

I was talking to a Chinese national a few days ago who had been living and working illegally in Ireland for over a decade. He was working in various restaurants and living in flats above them getting cash in hand. He has been legal for the last 3 or 4 years though. The way he was living is supposed to be fairly common in the restaurant/take away trade.

Pithythefool · 02-12-2017 6:10pm

From my own experience I believe there is a very significant number of people in Dublin living and working illegally. Like the poster above, know of more than a few takeaways running these shenanigans.

Its weird to imagine that nobody has a tab on the thing at all, all these people that don't officially exist. Same thing in America too, probably turned up to 90.

Would regularly see Hispanic looking people standing around on known street corners in broad daylight, in cosmopolitan areas of the US, waiting to be offered daily jobs. I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that it was so openly ignored/accepted.

Its all mad, ted

MonkieSocks · 02-12-2017 6:24pm

A good few of those Chinese people go # Missing In Ireland

http://www.thejournal.ie/chinese-teens-missing-1537317-Jun2014/

IvyTheTerrible · 02-12-2017 6:27pm

Pithythefool wrote: »

From my own experience I believe there is a very significant number of people in Dublin living and working illegally. Like the poster above, know of more than a few takeaways running these shenanigans.

Its weird to imagine that nobody has a tab on the thing at all, all these people that don't officially exist. Same thing in America too, probably turned up to 90.

Would regularly see Hispanic looking people standing around on known street corners in broad daylight, in cosmopolitan areas of the US, waiting to be offered daily jobs. I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that it was so openly ignored/accepted.

Its all mad, ted

Simple. Cheap labour that keeps an economy going.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 02-12-2017 6:34pm

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

On the subject of working illegally tho... I don't really care even if someone does it over here. Long as they are not breaking the law then who really cares.
How many jobs do not ask for your pps number? ... cash in hand ones so it's not like someone illegally here is taking a job from someone who works in a bank, warehouse, pennys etc etc.

Yeah I don’t mind peopl who are here illegally so long as they have the proper visas and pay their taxes.

Pithythefool · 02-12-2017 6:41pm

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

Simple. Cheap labour that keeps an economy going.

It sure is. It is also hilariously short-sighted.

Instead of reaching an equitable point where labour is divided and rewarded in a sustainable fashion (something that has never happened), we need cheap labour to keep the "good times" rolling.

But then you need even cheaper labour to prop up the cheap labour.

And then EVEN cheaper labour to prop up the cheaper labour to prop up the cheap labour.

Its the ultimate of all pyramid schemes, adding foundation layers of growing numbers of people while the top layers quality of life enters the stratosphere (such as Bezos of Amazon infamy, whos personal net "worth" just tipped the 100 billion dollar mark. That's 100'000 million dollars)

It rotten to the core, and dressed up in the emperors clothes of humanitarianism and equality. Diabolical in its own genius, really!

Pithythefool · 02-12-2017 6:42pm

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Yeah I don’t mind peopl who are here illegally so long as they have the proper visas and pay their taxes.

Bit of an oxymoron there. If you cant benefit from the safety of society as a taxpayer, then why would you pay into it?

Galwayguy35 · 02-12-2017 6:44pm

In Britain workplaces get fined thousands for employing illegals, you would see it on that programme Border Force I think it's called where they raid various places based on tip offs.

I wonder have we something similar here?

Pithythefool · 02-12-2017 6:52pm

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

In Britain workplaces get fined thousands for employing illegals, you would see it on that programme Border Force I think it's called where they raid various places based on tip offs.

I wonder have we something similar here?

We do, and just like other countries, it is woefully ineffective in the big picture.

B.A._Baracus · 02-12-2017 7:28pm

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Yeah I don’t mind peopl who are here illegally so long as they have the proper visas and pay their taxes.

Good for you :pac:

In all seriousness tho, maybe it's just me but there is a difference in someone coming over here (coming from some kip) working under the radar, not some scum breaking the law, making money so when he goes home he'll be that better off.

Then of course there are the scum who'll break the law or try to get legal only to be on the social forever. Who wants them. Stop them.

imme · 02-12-2017 10:08pm

Don't know any 'illegals' as you call them OP.

The Irish in the US are illegal are often called "undocumented" by our politicians.

Of course we have our own "undocumented" in Ireland, from all over the world. But they get called "illegal" if anything at all, they are the micro-elephants of our age.

Nobody talks about them. They talk for themselves.

A recent court case involved Mauritian people taking cases against the State for not being treated as anything other than students, even though they came to Ireland as 'students'

Language will get us in trouble.

Berserker · 02-12-2017 10:20pm

ceadaoin. wrote: »

It's one thing to do this when you're young and single, but I don't know how people like those mentioned above can ever relax and enjoy their lives knowing that they could be deported and separated from their kids at any time and never be allowed back to see them. All it takes is one malicious ex partner or acquaintance for this to happen.

Recall one lad from Carlow who was a barman on 14th street coming into the bar one day and he was as pale as a ghost. Cops had pulled him over for a broken light on his car and they spent an eternity in the cop car running checks on him. He was convinced he was done. That lad had an American OH and two small children. One of them must have been a few months old at most. He moved over there in the 80s, got a decent job, something he wouldn't have had in Ireland and settled there. He'll always have work in NY.

Dancing Inferno · 02-12-2017 11:00pm

You don't the right to be illegally in someone else's country. Deport them.

Pero_Bueno · 03-12-2017 12:18am

I worked in the USA illegally for one summer, all my friends had J1s and I left it too late to get one, went over anyway and had a great summer - was better in fact then the following year when I went with a J1 - this was before 9/11 so don't know would it be so easy now.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 03-12-2017 12:50am

Berserker wrote: »

Recall one lad from Carlow who was a barman on 14th street coming into the bar one day and he was as pale as a ghost. Cops had pulled him over for a broken light on his car and they spent an eternity in the cop car running checks on him. He was convinced he was done. That lad had an American OH and two small children. One of them must have been a few months old at most. He moved over there in the 80s, got a decent job, something he wouldn't have had in Ireland and settled there. He'll always have work in NY.

NY or Boston are probably the best cities to get pulled over in as the majority of cops are half Irish themselves.

Witchie · 03-12-2017 6:33am

Am sorta illegally working in Malaysia. Technically I work in Ireland doing online work and have paid my taxes there but have been living on a tourist visa in Malaysia since July. I think digital working is changing the landscape on this as there is no longer a total black and white answer to where you work.

I have started a new job here where they are getting me a work visa and I will have to start paying tax here, but until it comes in I am still a freelance consultant. Oh and the company I am working for are running a project for the Malaysian government.

I actually know a guy from South Africa here who is working for the Malaysian government as a consultant but is also on a tourist visa because the Malaysian government can't legally employ non-Malaysians. So he is sitting in meetings and saying "hey lads I won't be here next week, am going to Cambodia" and they know he is going on a visa run. I think it is a very Irish solution to the problem with them just turning a blind eye.

03-12-2017 9:21am

Blessed is the country which has no emigrants, only "ex pats"...

Illegal immigration was the norm for huge numbers of Irish, including from my own immediate family, in America in the 1980s. That money kept many a fire lighting on our little island during the "we can't all live on a small island"/"as a nation we are living beyond our means" days of the charvet-shirt loving Haughey kleptocracy.

This is an unwelcome truth to many now that
17.3% of this state's population was born abroad (i.e. a
greater percentage than Britain, Germany or France has). It doesn't justify the astonishing myopia of current neo-liberal economic policy that depends on encouraging more cheap immigrant labour, but it should temper our reaction to it.

Galwayguy35 · 03-12-2017 9:57am

If someone is working in a country illegally they should be deported, they made a choice to break the law and must deal with the consequences.

Working and living in a country illegally

Comments