New Irish in London face hard times, says paper
Monday, March 23rd, 2009The Irish Times has carried a bleak article on recent Irish arrivals in London. Reporter Carl O’Brien points out the dramatic change that has occurred with the downturn:
For many younger people, the maudlin emigration songs with their tales of yearning and aching loneliness felt like stories from a distant era. Suddenly, they don’t feel so remote anymore. As the shutters are pulled down on job opportunities at home, the harsh prospect of having to find work abroad is all too real for thousands of young people.
This statement is from 29-year-old who has left his four-year-old behind in Portlaoise and now working 12-hour shifts six or seven days a week:
“You miss home, you miss your family, you miss your friends. I was training a soccer team at home. Every time I ring my son, it’s, ‘are you collecting me today, Daddy’, so that’s tough. Any chance I get to go home, I take it to try and see him and the family. With the job here, though, it’s hard to know when you’ll be free.�
The article highlights a few reasons to be optimistic about this generation of emigrants. Today’s young people tend to be better educated and more confident than in the past. Danny Maher, chief executive of Cricklewood Homeless Concern told the paper,
“I think this is a totally different group of people. This generation is better able to adapt and they’re more globally-minded. If someone is in a vulnerable position, through drink or drugs or whatever, this is the last place they should be . . . These days, the Irish are more likely to be in the wealthier suburbs – they don’t need safety in numbers anymore. That can only be a positive thing.�
Local GAA clubs report that they are assisting people with jobs and contacts, while the London Irish Centre in Camden reports getting four or five people a week in need of emergency assistance. Peter Hammond says,
“In the old days you could just turn up at a construction site looking for ‘the start’. Those days are gone. You need accreditation, training, national insurance numbers.
“We always had a trickle of vulnerable people with drink or drug problems here during the boom. But now there are jobless people ending up homeless or in need of emergency support. We have a fund for repatriations. I’d say we’re putting someone on a Ryanair flight back to Ireland on a weekly basis.�
Read the article on the Irish Times website: Hard times for Irish in London.
Australia cuts visas for builders and manufacturing
Friday, March 20th, 2009is reacting to the global downturn by cutting its intake of migrants for the first time in ten years. The government said this week that it would reduce the number of work permits by about 14%, or 18,500.
The government is removing bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers and electricians from the critical shortage list. Hairdressers and cooks had already been removed. Health occupations, engineering and information technology remain on the list.
The visa cuts will affect would-be Irish emigrants. Media reports in recent weeks have detailed problems affective Irish job-seekers in Australia.
Australia’s unemployment rate is currently 5.2%, up from 4.8% last month.
Related websites:
Bishop urges diaspora to welcome newcomers
Thursday, March 19th, 2009In his St Patrick’s Day message, Bishop Séamus Hegarty, Bishop of Derry and Chair of the Bishops’ Council for Emigrants, has urged the Irish Diaspora to assist those who may be leaving Ireland to escape the economic downturn.
Here is the entire text of his comments:
GuÃm beannachtaà na Féile Pádraig oraibh uilig. On this, the Feast of our National Apostle, I send warm greetings to Irish people at home and abroad and to all those who join in the celebration of our national feast, including the many immigrants to our own shores. Saint Patrick first encountered Ireland as a migrant. Thus, it is fitting that on the Feast of our National Patron, we again seek to highlight the needs of the many Irish emigrants spread throughout the world.
Article 2 of our Constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann, rightly states that ‘The Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage.’
The Irish Episcopal Council for Emigrants (IECE) has, for over fifty years, sought to provide pastoral support to our emigrants and in cooperation with our many apostolates, sister organisations and volunteers will continue to do so.
As a consequence of the current downturn in the economy, increasing numbers of Irish men and women are again leaving our shores in the hope of making a new life for themselves and their families. For many, this can be a difficult journey to make and so at this time of increasing outward migration, I urge the Irish Diaspora to continue to work together in the spirit of charity and compassion to ensure the welfare of all Irish emigrants.
Today we remember in a special way those Irish emigrants whose journey has been a difficult one. We are especially mindful of the elderly Irish in Britain and our undocumented in the United States. IECE continues to highlight the longstanding problems facing generations of Irish emigrants. The outreach services provided to emigrants, pioneered by priests, religious and supportive lay people over many years, continue to expand and are truly in keeping with Gospel values.
On this Saint Patrick’s Day, I am reminded of the words of our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI who, in this the year of Saint Paul invites us to:
‘love to the full without making any kind of distinction and without discrimination, in the conviction that any one who needs us and whom we can help is our neighbour (cf. Deus Caritas Est, n. 15). May the teaching and example of St Paul, a great and humble Apostle and a migrant, an evangelizer of peoples and cultures, spur us to understand that the exercise of charity is the culmination and synthesis of the whole of Christian life.’[1]
It is also important on this day that we, as a society, recognise the difficulties faced by those who have come to this country seeking to make Ireland their home. I hope that they will receive the same ceád mÃle fáilte that we would wish for our own emigrants. The newly established Bishops’ Commission for the Care of Migrants, incorporating the Irish Episcopal Council for Emigrants and more recently the Irish Episcopal Council for Immigrants, will endeavour to support and give voice to the worries and concerns of those who wish to make Ireland their home.
On this day too it is important to highlight an especially vulnerable group of emigrants – Irish people imprisoned overseas. The Bishops’ Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas (ICPO), under the auspices of the Irish Episcopal Council for Emigrants, continues to work tirelessly on their behalf. ICPO provide support to over 420 Irish people imprisoned throughout the world. While the majority are imprisoned in Britain, others are located in Europe, the Americas, Australia and Africa. Thirty four new cases were received by ICPO in the period November 2008 to January 2009. This equates to one person every three days.
The 2007 Report on Irish Prisoners Abroad prepared by Mr. Chris Flood provides an excellent synopsis of the many difficulties faced by Irish prisoners and their families. While considerable progress has been made, it is imperative that the remaining recommendations contained within the Flood Report are urgently implemented. The ICPO is committed to securing their introduction and will continue to work with the Department of Foreign Affairs and others to secure their implementation.
“May the Virgin Mother, who together with her Blessed Son knew the pain of emigration and exile, help us to understand the experience, and very often the drama, of those who are compelled to live far from their homeland, and teach us to serve them in their necessities, truly accepting them as brothers and sisters, so that today’s migrations may be considered a call, albeit a mysterious one, to the Kingdom of God, which is already present in His Church, its beginning (cf. LG 9), and an instrument of Providence to further the unity of the human family and peace�. (Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi)
[1] MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR THE 95th WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES (2009) Theme: St Paul migrant, ‘Apostle of the peoples’.
Related websites:
News report highlights costs of emigration
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009The Irish Independent has run a feature story on the costs associated with emigration, highlighting the visa fees and associated costs.
It reports, for example, that the General Skilled Migration programme to Australia costs over €5,000 for the visa, for example, while Canada requires that a would-be emigrant show they have at least CA$10,833 (about €6,717) to support themselves while looking for a job.
Read the entire article at the Irish Independent website: If you want to escape, it will cost you.
For more advice and information on migrating, check out our “Need Advice?” section.
Radio reports focus on emigrant destinations
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009RTE reporter Cian McCormack has done a four-part series on the station’s Morning Ireland radio show covering emigration to the US, Australia, Britain and Canada.
To listen, visit RTE’s archives:
- Emigrating to the US in search of work – 3 March
- Australia still popular with Irish emigrants – 4 March
- Emigrating to Britain – 5 March
- Emigrating to Canada – 6 March
Dublin man in Dubai only misses the rain
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009The Irish of Dubai are featured in an article on the Time Out Dubai website – and one of them reports the only thing he misses is the rain.
Cormac Lynch, a 26-year-old architect who has been in Dubai for eight months, says he came for economic opportunity, and knows many people in architecture and design who came over for the opportunity to create something new.
He tells Time Out:
I’m from Dublin and, although Dublin’s also a city, when I first came out here, I still found it daunting. But I really like it now – the sun, the beach and all the people you meet. I like that there are so many international people here that you wouldn’t necessarily meet back home in Ireland.
I do miss the rain, I have to say, and the greenness of everything, but other than that, I don’t miss much. I never go anywhere that’s strictly Irish, like the Irish Village. Like I said, I’m here to meet new people, though I have met some Irish people at Gaelic matches, which take place in Safa Park.
Read more about Cormac and some fellow Dubai-based expats on the TimeOutDubai.com website.
Related websites:
- Dubai Irish Society
- Dubai Celts GAA
- Irish presence in Dubai continues to grow (Sunday Business Post, 21/5/06)