The government wants to add “integration” conditions to the citizenship process. Will it up its own game, too?

Alexander Dashevsky puts a wrinkled Zara paper bag and a bright-coloured backpack down outside the CHQ building in the city’s Docklands. Then he flashes a broad smile.

He arrived in Ireland in the summer of 2022, and was granted status under domestic law a year later.

But in the last three years, Dashevsky, who is from Ukraine, has been struggling to build a life here, while homeless. He has slept on the floor of the airport, on the streets, in asylum centres and homeless hostels, he said.

Still, he has been trying to learn English. Back when Dashevsky lived in Tallaght for a while, he enrolled in English-language lessons in the area.

He loved the classes. “My teacher, very very good teacher, big specialist,” he said recently, sitting in the food court area inside the CHQ building.

But when he had to uproot to a homeless hostel in the city centre, he had to find another course in his new neighbourhood.

He wanted a part-time class, and found one eventually in Ballymun, he said. New classes kick off this week. 

Dashevsky’s English has improved a little since last summer, when he sat outside a café in the city and hid his face in his hands, frustrated that he couldn’t say what he really wanted.

He has heard about Fianna Fáil Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan's proposal to add civic and language tests – Irish, sign language, or English, but “most probably English” – to the list of requirements that people have to meet in order to get Irish citizenship.

Civic and language tests aren't a bad idea, Dashevsky said. 

At least, it makes sense on paper, he said. But he does wonder what level counts as good enough. He's at B1 level now, he said.

Dashevsky is in his late 50s, and has been bouncing for years between insecure accommodation as he searches for somewhere to rent. It makes reaching his language goals difficult, he said.  “For young people maybe it’s easier to learn.”

Besides, Dashevsky has grown sceptical about whether he will ever be allowed to become an Irish citizen under its new regime, no matter how long he stays – because he has needed to draw on public benefits, he said.

The citizenship proposals sit alongside other changes to tighten access to public assistance for lower-income immigrants, and other minorities.

In June, the government brought in a new law that makes for greater restrictions on access to emergency homeless accommodation, with the need to prove “habitual residency” and no accounting for situations of domestic violence or the presence of children.

Lucky Khambule of the Movement of Asylum Seekers Ireland (MASI) says that people on low incomes, with unstable housing, are bound to be most affected by more stringent policies for citizenship.

“Low-income earners, especially those who might have come through the international protection pathway,” Khambule said.

The law to change citizenship conditions is now being drafted, set for pre-legislative scrutiny.

So, the Department of Justice said its too early to comment on what level of language proficiency will be judged as good enough, and whether the state will ramp up its efforts to help people meet that and set up stable lives – if that's the aim. 

Going both ways

“There is growing political momentum across many EU countries to tighten the requirements for acquiring citizenship,” according to a 2025 policy brief from the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX), a tool that gauges integration levels in 50 countries.

Yet, “reducing the legal and procedural barriers that prevent immigrants from acquiring citizenship plays a vital role not only in facilitating formal naturalisation, but also in fostering a deeper sense of inclusion and equal membership within society,” says the report.

O'Callaghan has, among other changes, proposed increasing the years needed to qualify for citizenship from five to eight for most people, and from three to five for spouses of Irish citizens. 

Some opposition politicians like Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD, Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy TD and his fellow party member Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin TD have welcomed the Irish government’s new proposals. 

In a Facebook post marked as “AI content” by Meta – which means "the post was created or edited with artificial intelligence tools” according to the platform – Ó Súilleabháin wrote that  “Irish citizenship is a privilege. It should no longer behanded out like smarties!”

People have to be judged as having “good character” to become Irish citizens, and whether an application for naturalisation is approved is discretionary.

Meanwhile, people born in Muslim-majority countries face harsher background checks involving opaque intel-gathering from other countries that holds up their applications for years.

Ó Súilleabháin, the Sinn Féin TD, also posted screenshots of past parliamentary questions showing he had repeatedly scrutinised the Minister for Justice about the absence of language exams for citizenship.

Earlier this year, his colleague, Carthy, the party’s spokesperson for Migration and Justice, had also asked O’Callaghan if “any language or integration criteria applies for family reunification visas” and wondered if any would in the future. 

Carthy did not respond to a query sent through the Sinn Féin press office on Tuesday morning asking what he meant by "integration criteria".

Ireland currently ranks in the bottom half of the table for family reunification policies that support integration, in the 2025 brief from MIPEX – with a score that has dived in recent years.

The brief also says that the more restrictive immigration regimes across European have been “coupled with comparatively limited investment in integration” from European governments.

Ireland hasn’t had a National Integration Strategy for a few years now – holding back the city and Fingal from rolling out a new ones of their own, too.

Back in 2025, Dutch officials asked other EU member states – through the European Migration Network – whether they offered any kind of incentive to encourage refugees and subsidiary protection holders to take part in “civic integration activities”.

Irish officials responded that “there are limited voluntary civic integration activities in Ireland for specific group of beneficiaries”.

But at the same time, it doesn’t have integration tests, they said. And, it’s unclear if bringing in those exams means that it is to ramp up its own integration efforts. 

“The relative neglect of integration is particularly disquieting, given its proven potential as a pragmatic and sustainable strategy for addressing many of the societal challenges that are often cited as justification for more restrictive measures,” said the 2025 MIPEX policy brief. 

A healthy mind

Dashevsky doesn’t sleep well, he says. He has been applying to places to rent privately and move out of homeless accommodation.

He’s come close. A couple of landlords liked him when they met, said Dashevsky, but he reckons they’re turned off by the fact that he is on rent subsidy. 

He was mugged by kids near his accommodation recently too, he says. He took off his glasses to show traces of a scar. 

“I’m in the circle of my problems,” Dashevsky said, tracing the space with a finger on the table. 

Difficulties speaking and understanding English do dominate his life, he says.

They've impacted his ability to get healthcare, too, he said. Now, he’s switching to a doctor who can speak his first language, said Dashvesky.

“If you’re a refugee in Ireland, you need to have perfect health without any problem, if you have problem, no chance, no chance,” he said, waving his hands. 

Once he turns a corner and finds a rental home, maybe he will be able to focus better and speak better English, Dashevsky said. 

The nights he sleeps well, he said, he can focus and speak better English the day after. “Big problem is accommodation. For everything."