Crumlin Boxing Club is run by Philip Sutcliffe Snr, McGregor’s boxing coach, a Dublin city councillor who – like McGregor – has voiced anti-immigrant views.
The government made English language schools restart in-person classes briefly late last year. Immigration rules say non-EEA students have to attend a certain percentage of classes, or leave.
Immigrant graduates have to prove they found, or tried to find, a good job in their first year after graduation to get permission to stay for a second year. But they don’t know what evidence counts.
When Emily Waszak lost her husband to Covid-19 last year she went into self-isolation with her grief. On top of that, she had to worry about her immigration status.
International students can end up working as healthcare assistants as they study. Some who want to keep doing it once they’ve graduated, though, find the immigration system won’t let them.
The state wasn’t allocating enough resources to get back to queries about immigration services, says Sanchi Tayal – so she decided to do something about that.
“The Irish Council for Psychotherapy has about 4,000 therapists, and right now I have less than 10 people,” says Ejiro Ogbevoen, the founder of Black Therapists Ireland.
Some international students say a university could have done more to release final grades sooner, allowing them to work full-time, while others blame the backlogged immigration system.
Some parents living communally in a direct-provision centre in the city say they’re especially worried about the possibility that Covid-19 will spread from schools to their accommodation.
