Ms Maeve Richardson:

I echo my colleague's views on migration. I am honoured to be addressing the committee today. I am a BSc student in University College Cork in the second year of my undergraduate studies. Appropriately we are speaking on Europe Day about a month before the European Parliament elections. Given the changes in the political climate, it is now more important than ever to use the ballot box to have our voices heard in Europe.

The Treaty of Rome established the freedom of movement in respect of goods, services, capital and, what seems to be getting most attention lately, the movement of people, as we have seen from our colleagues in the European Union. Migration has many different definitions and comes in many types, including economic migrants, refugees and ex-pats. The perception of migration is intriguing as to whether it is harmful or positive, and what are its economic effects and difficulties. Many people see the advantages of labour gaps being filled and society becoming more diverse. We also see the negativity that jobs are being take away by members of the migrant community or that there is a social pressure on civic services along with an increase in racism and discrimination.

The cross-national Role of European Mobility and its Impacts in Narratives, Debates and EU Reforms, REMINDER, study shows that more than half of EU citizens regard the freedom of movement as positive for Europe despite an increase in support for far-right parties which has the effect of making mainstream parties take tougher stances on immigration. European countries tend to view the effects of migrants in two ways - cultural and economic. More recently we are starting to think about safety and terrorism. The REMINDER study took place across seven countries in western Europe. Apart from the UK, most countries showed more than 50% in favour of the freedom of movement. These viewed most immigrants to western European as beneficial and not an economic or cultural threat. Africans were viewed as most threatening to the economy while Middle Eastern migrants were considered the most threatening to safety and culture. This has been as a result of the image of migrants portrayed in our media.

Europeans perceive that migrants from outside Europe make up 16.7% of the EU population. The reality is that it is about 4.4% as of January 2018. The representation of migrants in the media has had a profound effect on how we view our migrants. The media provide both a human face in the form of refugees but also a mild terror attack in the form of big news headlines which terrify us.

Migration is an important topic for us all. It has been shown to be a top priority for countries in the southern coastal part of Europe, namely in Croatia, Italy and Greece. It is not so much of an issue in Ireland and is not a voter priority. This is mainly due to the fact in the late 2010s it is shown that the majority of non-EU migrants arrive by sea.

Our landscape is changing through climate change and we need to become proactive rather than reactive if we are to prepare for another migrant crisis such as we saw in 2015. We need to make sure that with coming of an EU army we are not creating a fortress Europe but rather creating a Europe that is open to all and not just Europeans.