Polish woman’s return echoes Irish experience
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008The Irish Times provides yet another example of how the Irish experience as an emigrant nation is being replicated among our community of immigrants.
Magda Jelonkiewicz writes today of how, after six years of living in Ireland, she is joining the thousands of Poles who are returning home. As she pondered her decision, she found herself taking advice from her Irish friends, returned emigrants themselves:
My Irish friends who had once emigrated and came back were very supportive, encouraging me to take the plunge. In hindsight, none of them had regretted their decision. I was warned, though, come-backs are tough. I asked “returned Poles” for their feedback online, too. Stories of doom and gloom followed. Most of the respondents got depressed and eventually, unable to cope with the Polish reality, opted for the immigrant life.
She has decided to return home after facing a series of setbacks, and finds herself facing some of the same questions that must be faced by any returning emigrant:
Nevertheless, I decided to proceed with my plan to move home. There would never be a right time. Now is as good as tomorrow or a year. My decision to go back was based on personal reasons. I wonder, though, if the recession in Ireland will influence my Polish friends to take the same course. How will we be received at home? Will we be determined enough to stay and look for employment matching our skills? Will we fit in?
Read the entire article at the Irish Times website.
Mayo woman lauds welcome from Cleveland Irish
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008The Mayo News has a lovely column this week paying tribute to the Irish community in Cleveland, highlighting the warmth and support of the community that columnist Denise Horan found on a recent visit.
Ms Horan attended the annual ball of the Mayo society and found a thriving community, heavily populated by the many Achill people who emigrated to the city over the years.
She pays tribute to the community spirit that exists among the Irish abroad:
The sense of community that exists among these people is special. They all left home – or were reared on stories of their parents’ leaving – at an early age, and came to Cleveland to make a future for themselves. When they arrived, people like Steve Mulloy, and others before him, assisted countless Mayo people in getting jobs and accommodation. Though their help was life-saving for many raw youngsters, landing fresh from a secluded Mayo village into the middle of a busy US city, they thought nothing of their offering. It was simply something they did.
She also discusses her impression of the blending of Irish and American cultures that she believes the Mayo people in Ohio have managed:
These people don’t deny their American existence and its influence on their lives; they marry it with their Irish culture and heritage and allow the two to co-exist happily. In many Irish communities abroad, in the UK in particular, you sense a longing in the voices and a loneliness in the eyes of emigrants. Ireland is still where they want to be.
Maybe I missed it in the Irish Clevelanders, but it seemed to me that it simply wasn’t there. There is a contentment rather than a longing; they’re happy to be where they are but ever mindful of their home across the Atlantic.
Read the entire article on the Mayo News website.
Emigration “a rite of passage”, says columnist
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008A columnist has an intriguing perspective on emigration in today’s Irish Times. Quentin Fottrell left Ireland for London after graduation and returned in 1999. He says that “emigration is not something that should be feared”:
“It is the best way of finding out that it’s like in the big bad world and can provide work experience you could only otherwise dream of. For the last big wave of emigrants in the early 1990s, before Ireland evolved into a multicultural society, it was also a chance to see how the other folk live.”
He also says, “Emigration is as much an Irish rite of passage it is a necessary evil”.
Nearly a quarter-million emigrants returned in the ten years up to 2006, Fottrell notes, acknowledging the pull of family and home.
As the perspective of an educated person who emigrated by choice and was able to return home, it’s an interesting read.
See the full article in the Irish Times.
Canadian explains her return home
Monday, October 6th, 2008A letter-writer in the Irish Independent takes a provocative look at her decision to return to Canada after spending two years in Dublin.
She notes several factors in her decision to leave the country, including her own redundancies, Ireland’s economic troubles, the healthcare system, infrastructure problems, and housing costs. She notes that she is not alone in preparing for departure, speaking of “whispers of leaving” in academic halls.
Read the full letter at the Irish Independent website.
Gov awards $1.5 million to US groups
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008The Department of Foreign Affairs has announced its funding for sixteen emigrant service organisations in the US, totalling $1.5 million (1.03 million euro).
Since the establishment of the Irish Abroad Unit in 2004, the Department of Foreign Affairs has allocated more than USD8 million to the Irish Community Centres and Organisations in the United States.
The funding is as follows, divided by consular area.
New York 771,000
– Aisling Irish Centre 126,000
– Emerald Isle Immigration Centre 196,000
– New York Irish Centre 130,000
– Project Irish Outreach 112,000
– Irish Immigration and Pastoral Centre/Immigrant Support Services, Philadelphia 132,000
– Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform 50,000
– Commodore Barry 25,000
Washington DC 166,000
– Ocean City Irish Student Outreach 1,000
– Irish Apostolate 22,000
– Coalition of Irish Immigration Centers 68,000
Boston 372,000
– Irish Immigration Center, Boston 200,00
– Irish Pastoral Centre, Boston 172,000
San Francisco 159,500
– Irish Immigration and Pastoral Centre (IIPC), San Francisco 130,000
– Seattle Irish Immigration Support Group (SIISG) 2,500
– Irish Outreach San Diego 27,000
Chicago 125,000
– Irish Immigrant Support, Chicago 110,00015,000
Total 1,518,500
Visit the Department of Foreign Affair’s Irish Abroad Unit.
Nigerian bishop’s call for return echoes Irish experience
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008Ireland’s experience as an immigrant nation often reflects its own emigrant heritage, and yet another example of this is reported in the Irish Times yesterday.
Echoing the call of Ireland to its own emigrants to return as its economy boomed, a Nigerian bishop visiting Ireland has said his expat compatriots should consider bringing their knowledge back to their home country.
Dr Hyacinth Egbebo, the bishop of Bomadi highlighted the situation in words that are reminiscent of Ireland in the 1980s, when highly educated emigrants departed for better opportunities:
Most of those who leave the shores of Africa, they are the ones who could improve the continent. Now they’re leaving and there is a brain drain. If they don’t stay at home to improve Africa, then this migration will continue and there will be no end to it.
He added,
Every gifted Nigerian wants to leave the country. Generally they feel that the government has failed them. They’re looking for greener pastures out there, because they know that they have something to contribute to life and they cannot be locked away in a place where nothing really works.
It’s very discouraging. People feel they’re better off to relocate and forget about Africa, but that would be a mistake. Africa is a gift to the world, and it is in our hands to make it bloom.
Read the entire article in the Irish Times.
« Previous Entries Next Entries »