Five months ago, Donnah Vuma traveled from her home in Limerick to attend a citizenship ceremony in Co Kerry.

The former asylum seeker, who spent eight years going through the international protection system, joined almost 5,000 people from around the world in Killarney and became a citizen of the state.

“It was so meaningful to me; I remember during the ceremony it said, ‘Your immigration journey has ended.’ Every time I think about it, it feels like a huge weight has been lifted, she says.

Vuma is one of more than 11,400 people who have become Irish citizens so far this year, making her eligible to vote in a general election for the first time.

Vuma, a failure social democrats candidate in the municipal elections in June, Vuma knows how she will vote.

“Ireland has been good to me. But there are some areas that are lacking and if we don’t vote for change we will be stuck in a continuous cycle of disappointment,” she said.

Vuma is a single mother whose number one issue in the election is childcare.

“I’m an immigrant with very little resources or family support,” she says. “Child care is the pillar that prevents my access to everything. Without adequate childcare, I cannot fully participate.”

Kelli Monteiro, a Brazilian who has lived in Ireland for 11 years, says one reason she applied for citizenship was to vote in general elections and referendums.

“Democracy is hard-fought. So it’s important for me to have a say here, even a small one.”

Security and immigration are both important issues for Monteiro. “I live in Dublin city center and it’s becoming a mess. I wouldn’t go near half of O’Connell Street in the evening. Racism has existed for several years but it is getting stronger and that worries me,” she says.

“I hear racist and xenophobic slurs in the streets. Trump has now been elected, he started with ‘America first’. Now we hear ‘Ireland first’, ‘Ireland is full’. Everything is blamed on the immigrants.”

Monteiro is considering voting for either People Before Profit or Sinn Féin but is still undecided.

“I see Simon Harris say I’m going to do something new and I think, ‘You already have the power, why didn’t you do it before now?'”

Marcin Jezewski, who moved to Ireland from Poland in 2008 and became an Irish citizen last year, says he will only vote for candidates who support Ireland’s role in the EU.

“The European Union is how I got here; it’s how I stayed here,” he says.

As director of operations for the Rehab group, Jezewski would also like to see the next government provide more support for people with disabilities entering the workforce.

He is a homeowner in Longford town and says many of his Polish friends have not been able to save for a mortgage and want to see housing deficit correctly fixed.

Luz Pereira, who became an Irish citizen in 2021, says her beliefs align with the National Women’s Council’s election manifesto, which includes calls for transforming women’s health, guaranteed reproductive rights, an end to violence against women and the provision of public childcare.

Pereira, leader of the group Women of Brazil in Ireland, says the current childcare model “affects a woman’s independence and her ability to be part of society”.

The next government must also address the additional barriers immigrant women face in securing safe, affordable housing, especially those in abusive relationships, she says.

The Green Party is her first choice at the moment, followed by Fine Gael.

“I’m trying to get other new citizens to vote,” she says. “I’ve asked people to make sure they’re registered. It’s important to make our voices heard.”

Sharon Mpofu, who also became an Irish citizen at the Killarney ceremony in June, wants to see more support for families in rented accommodation.

After leaving international protection, she sent around 60 applications a week looking for accommodation and only managed to arrange one or two viewings.

“It took me six months to get an answer when I applied for a HAP house (State-supported housing assistance payments). Especially people from minority communities, we never get an answer.”

She will only vote for a candidate with a pro-immigration stance.

“After the riots, I was afraid to go out,” she recounts Dublin riots a year ago. “Society should come together and show that migrants are not here to commit crimes, they are here to help build Ireland.”