Our nonprofit has maybe around 50 paid part time and full time employees and we get hundreds of volunteers, so I am not sure if there are groups on this scale there or if they have a different name. But ours is affiliated with the school system so that helps us with funding for employees. I appreciate that, it really helps me.
A bit different than here so.
The immigration system in my country has been overhauled recently and it runs a lot smoother. One of the top posts in the forum is from an American lad who received a job offer in Ireland and is currently going through the visa process. A few years ago he would be posting asking for help and if he should just give up. It was that bad and a lot of talented migrants basically said 'fuck it, I'm out'.
We didn't receive may immigrants, only returning emigrants, up until the mid 90's. With economic prosperity came immigration and we were barely prepared for either!
I will pass on the list of the 200 or so organisations that deal directly with migrants in Ireland. Hopefully you get some joy there. You have EU citizenship so remember to note that in all and any applications or cover notes. Very important.
While I would love to get a Masters degree at some point in my future, I do not know what exactly I'd want to get it in and would need to save more money for sustaining myself during my studies.
Scotland offers free education to all EU citizens. Ireland, after three years residence. Germany and Sweden too. If you want to work longterm in the field, earn a decent wage and really make a difference, then it would be wise to look into it.
And I am sure plenty of people get burnt out after a while. But I want to work to help these people while I have the mental strength to do so!
In my country, we rarely physically deport people. Just under 300 per annum. They would be people taking the piss out of the system or violent criminals who would be repatriated upon completion of their sentence.
I was on a deportation just before the last government collapsed and after it I handed in my papers. In Ireland, the deportee receives a letter asking them to leave the state within 30 days. They ignore it, then they get another letter informing them of their deportation date. Then it is acted upon by picking them up early am. They are given ten minutes to freshen up and pack up their belongings and away they go.
The woman and two kids we picked up were Nigerian. The woman lied through her teeth and had an immigration history in the UK. She exhausted her appeals and had a deportation order against her in the UK as she had a previous immigration history in the UK. All well and good but her son was autistic. Sending them all back to Lagos was heartless, imho. The kids even spoke with Dublin accents. We stopped at the McDonalds 24/7 drive through to get a bite hoping that a call would come through and we didn't have to send the poor fuckers to Lagos.
In the end no call came and we deported them two kids, who spoke with a Dublin accent, who went to Dublin schools, who loved the Dublin football team, who were young Dubs, just because they didn't have the same passport as the rest of us Dubs. You grow up in Dublin, you are a Dub.
And that, my friend, is fucking hard and something I will have to live with for the rest of my life.