In its best sense, immigration is fundamentally about hope. It requires imagination to think that a better life might be possible, courage to seize an opportunity and, above all, iron-willed determination to improve your own future prospects and those of your family.

Ireland appreciates those qualities because, for generations, so many of our people traveled to Texas and elsewhere in the United States and helped build this great nation.

The Irish imprint in Texas goes deep. We were among the earliest settlers here, and many Irish men and women, and their descendents, have featured prominently in Texan history. Of those who died at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, 11 were Irish-born, and the Irish tricolour still stands proudly there today.

So, as U.S. immigration reform continues to be the subject of passionate debate, I hope there will be a readiness to listen to the Irish voice and Irish concerns.

There is a twofold reason for our concern. First, by our reckoning, 50,000 people out of the overall estimated 11 million to 12 million undocumented migrants in the U.S. are Irish.

Many of these Irish people have been here for a decade or more. The vast majority pays taxes and makes Social Security contributions. All are anxious to regularize their immigration status and contribute to their adopted country as fully as possible.

There are compelling economic and human arguments for allowing them to do so.

Like other nationalities, undocumented Irish migrants’ fear of deportation is a constant factor. Emergence from the shadows would enable them to innovate, create jobs and help their local communities prosper.

Undocumented status takes a huge personal toll, and not only on the individuals directly involved. Communities all over Ireland tell stories about funerals where a son or daughter could not risk traveling home from America to see a parent buried or about other important family occasions from which loved ones are separated.

Our second concern relates to the difficulties encountered by Irish people seeking to work legally in this country. Since the 1965 U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, there has been very little scope for legal migration from Ireland to the U.S.

For many years, highly skilled Irish young people have been obliged to look outside the U.S. — particularly to Canada and Australia — for legal employment opportunities abroad.

By way of example, federal data shows that Irish people obtained just 0.15 percent — less than one-fifth of one percent — of U.S. legal permanent residency permits (green cards) issued between 2003 and 2012. This amounts to around 15,000 out of the total of 10.5 million issued.

That figure is pitifully small when viewed against the rich historic and social connections that bind our two countries. And it means our smart, talented, English-speaking young people have no alternative but to look elsewhere when they wish or need to take their skills and attributes abroad.

The current situation resonates neither with our shared past nor with today’s growing economic and investment ties between our two countries. U.S. companies, including some Texas-based companies such as Dell, employ around 100,000 people in Ireland, and Irish companies employ over 80,000 U.S. citizens across the United States, including a number of Irish companies that have operations in Texas.

While we understand the political complexities involved, the Irish government and the Irish-American community are deeply concerned that the current window of opportunity for progress on immigration reform could pass. Our fervent hope is that an agreement can be reached in Congress on reform measures that deliver relief for currently undocumented Irish migrants and a facility for future flows of legal migration between Ireland and the United States.

We look forward to a legislative outcome that reflects both the richness of the historical ties between our two countries and our vibrant 21st-century relationship.

Anne Anderson is ambassador of Ireland to the United States and wrote this exclusively for The Dallas Morning News.