Wanted: Journalist to Report on the Irish Immigration System

We are looking for a freelance reporter to write weekly for us about the Irish immigration system and how it impacts the lives of immigrants living in Dublin. We’re adding this role at the request of our readers.

The reporter who takes on this new role will be responsible for finding stories, pitching them to our editor, reporting them, writing them, and then working with us through the editing process.

It takes time to learn a new “beat”, to understand the issues, to learn to navigate the institutions, to build up contacts. We want someone who will stick with us for a good long while and build up that expertise, learn to separate the signal from the noise, and take the coverage to a deeper level.

We don’t really care what your education or experience level is, as long as you can do this job well. Personal experience of the Irish immigration system is a plus.

Unfortunately, you’re probably going to have to have pretty thick skin, as we have found that basically any coverage of immigration or race attracts at least some level of trolls, bots, and online abuse. We’ll do our best to help support you through that.

We’ll pay you our new freelance rate for reported articles, which is €150 per published article. We want to publish one story from this beat in each of our weekly online editions going forward.

You’ll also have a seat and vote at our co-op meetings, where the team discuss and decide together on future plans for the newspaper, including financial decisions. (We’re not legally a co-op yet, but we’re acting as one for now, and working towards it.)

To apply, please send us a CV, two articles you’ve written, and three ideas for articles you’d want to write for us on this new immigration beat – remembering, again, that we’re not looking to replicate stories already out there. The deadline for applications is midnight 16 June.

If you are looking for examples of the kind of coverage we are looking for, there are some examples of articles we’ve done on the immigration system here, here, here, and here.

If you’ve questions, concerns, or want to apply, you can reach us, as ever, at info@dublininquirer.com.