Where can job seekers go now? asks Indo
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008As talk of emigration rises, the question of where Irish people can go to find work is of increasing relevance. An article in this weekend’s Irish Independent suggests any move should be made with caution. The newspaper notes that economic forecasts for traditional emigrant destinations are bleak, and with increasing mobility of other nationalities, Irish job-seekers may find increasing competition abroad.
The newspaper takes an international rundown:
Australia – the number of Irish people seeking to emigrate to Australia has increased dramatically, but the labour shortages of a year ago appear to be ending, and redundancies are increasing. The unemployment rate is currently 4.4%, but rising.
Canada – Canada’s economy has been strong, but its November job losses totaled 71,000, the highest number of layoffs in a single month in 25 years. The west of the country remains in better shape.
US – Even those who are legally entitled to emigrate may find the US tough going right now – more than a half-million people lost their jobs last month, the highest number since December 1974.
The Middle East – Dubai looks like its economy is faltering due to overspeculation, but there remain openings in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi for such professionals as engineers, architects and accountants.
Eastern Europe – One report says that there will be strong growth in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and the Slovak Republic. While many Polish expats are returning home to take up new opportunities in its growing economy, there are good jobs available even for those who don’t speak Polish. While wages are low, so is the cost of living.
Related article:
Irish Independent: Emigration once again – but where can our young job-seekers go now?
New immigrants have better emigration options, claims “Economist” mag
Monday, December 1st, 2008Irish unemployment could be reduced by a percentage point with the emigration of 20,000 workers, says a report in the Economist. The report speculates that emigration is most likely to affect the 15% of the population that is non-national – mainly due to enhanced opportunities in the home countries of eastern Europeans, and declining economies in traditional Irish emigrant strongholds.
In truth, with the economic crisis hurting such traditional boltholes as Britain, America and Australia, as well as newer hotspots like Dubai, the options for laid-off Dublin lawyers or builders from Cork are limited. For now, though, things look brighter for those from Eastern Europe. Polish banks may be shedding staff, but this is a good time to be a Polish engineer or builder of big infrastructure. A torrent of EU regional aid is about to hit the ex-communist countries: across eastern and central Europe there are plans for new airports, fast trains and motorways. Poland has stadiums to build for the European football championship in 2012. The Polish and Lithuanian governments are actively trawling for workers in Ireland.
Think-tanks like the ESRI now forecast a net outflow of migration from Ireland of some 30,000 over the year to next April. Harder numbers are difficult to come by: Ireland is not a police state, and seasonal workers are tricky to monitor. Some emigrants will be Irish, or non-EU nationals. But the political significance is clear: if 20,000 workers from eastern Europe left Ireland, that would reduce unemployment by about a percentage point. Departing Poles would take their spending power with them, admittedly. But on balance, if they leave, it will be another reward for open labour markets. For the first time, a jump in Irish unemployment may be offset by non-nationals leaving the country.
In the most optimistic scenario, skilled Poles, Balts and others will head home to wait out the storm, finding secure (if lower-paid) jobs there, but then return when Ireland picks up again. This would be a big step forward for Europe as well. For such dynamic and flexible migration has been an economic grail in the EU for years, as politicians looked enviously at Americans’ willingness to move from one state to another in search of work. (In contrast, EU countries that impose curbs on foreigners give migrant workers already in them a reason to stay during downturns, for fear that it will be hard to return.)
Read the entire article at the Economist website..
No rise in new emigrants to Britain
Monday, November 24th, 2008Figures from Britain show that there is no significant rise in the numbers of new emigrants arriving from Ireland for the first time to Britain in the first half of this year.
The Irish Times is reporting that 5,100 Irish citizens registered for national insurance numbers between January and June. This is consistent with the 9,000 to 10,200 people who had registered during each of the four years
The report notes, however, that the numbers do not show emigrants who may be reactivating a number they were previously allocated. Any emigrants returning to Britain after working there previously would not be showing up in these figures.
Among those Irish registering, 58% were men; 44% were aged 18 to 24 and 43% were from 25 to 34. 40% went to London, 11% went to Scotland, and 8% were in southeastern England.
The article quoted Joe O’Brien, policy officer at Crosscare Migrant Project as saying that the figures reflected his organisation’s experience:
“I would think a lot of the people being let go at the moment are eastern Europeans, and there has been no increase among the Irish who come to us looking to go to England. We haven’t seen it, and we haven’t heard the organisations in London saying it either.”
See the article on the Irish Times website.
Irish in Australia increasing, figures show
Friday, November 21st, 2008The number of Irish nationals coming to Australia is rising substantially, according to Department of Immigration figures reported in the Irish Echo. The figures show increasing numbers of people immigrating to Australia under working holiday visas, employer-sponsored 457 visas, permanent residency visas, and through the Family Migration stream. Â If current trends continue, 87,000 Irish nationals will be issued visas this year, up from 81,070 last year and 75,246 the year before.
There were 7,332 working holiday visas issued between July 1 and October 31 this year, up 33% from the same period last year, when there were 5,535 issued. In the same period in 2006, there were 4,733 issued.
More Irish are choosing to stay in Australia at the end of their one-year working holiday: between July and October, 1,239 applied for an extension, a quadrupling from the 371 who applied last year. Over 10% of those on working holiday visas are now applying for a second year. Â Last year, there was a record total of 15,625 working holiday visas, and this number will increase for 2008/2009.
The number of 457 visas, which are employer-sponsored and valid for up to four years has nearly doublied in two years. Â For July to October, there were 1,220 visas, up from 670 in 2006. More people are immigating with partners and dependents: 900 of the 467 visas were to primary applications and 320 are secondary, up from 600 and 160 respectively last year.
The number of Irish people offered resident visas from July through October this year has jumped 60%, from 391 in 2007 to 633 in 2008.
Irish visitor numbers, however, are decreasing; the 16,730 who came to Australia on holiday visas between July and October represented a decline of 8%.
See the article on the Irish Echo website.
NY Times speculates on Irish return to city
Monday, February 11th, 2008The Irish may be coming back to the New York neighborhood of Woodlawn, suggests an article in the New York Times. In an article entitled, rather tweely, “Return Trip on the Shamrock Express”, journalist James Angelos suggests that the trend of return migration back to Ireland, driven by the Irish boom and the post-9/11 crackdown on the undocumented, may be reversing. The article cites the recent Irish Voice article that suggested agencies working with Irish immigrants are busier with new arrivals in recent weeks.
The journalist quotes Siobhán Dennehy, executive director of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center of New York, who says she has noticed more new immigrants coming in making inquiries about housing and jobs. She says that many of them would be former New York residents who have returned to the city after a stay back home, finding Ireland’s housing expensive and the job scene slowing.
Not everyone agrees with the notion that the Irish are returning, however: One waitress says that if more Irish are arriving, she hasn’t seen them.
The article concludes with a quote from one new arrival, a visa holder from Northern Ireland who arrived in September. He says he came over when the slowdown in the construction industry hit him. He claimed more emigrants would be coming back to New York “because there is no work left in Ireland�.
That sentiment, of course, seems to be overstating the case. The current unemployment rate in Ireland, while higher than in recent years, still stands at a very low 4.8%. Recent census figures, however, do point to a rise in emigration last year, probably fuelled at least in part by an increase in return migration among Eastern Europeans. In addition, male migration to Ireland has slowed, possibly due to a decrease in the number of jobs available in construction.
Read the whole article on the New York Times site.
Undocumented resolution unlikely: Ahern
Thursday, February 7th, 2008The Taoiseach dealt with a number of issues related to emigration, and particularly the undocumented in the US, during question time in the Dail yesterday. He said that a bilateral agreement that would allow Irish and American citizens to travel and work between the two countries was on hold for political reasons. Mr Ahern also noted that most of the existing models for bilateral agreements would not take care of those who were already undocumented.
Speaking about his upcoming visit to Washington, Mr Ahern said:
There is a strong sense in Washington that immigration reform will remain a difficult issue for the foreseeable future. While US political leaders fully acknowledge that the number of undocumented Irish is extremely small in the overall context, there is an understandable reluctance to single out one particular group for preferential treatment, and therein lies the difficulty. I do not believe anyone is against our cause, but when taken in its totality they cannot deal with it. We will, of course, continue our efforts for as long as it takes, and I shall certainly work on it again next month at the meetings that I will have.
See the Dail report under the heading “Ireland-US relations”.
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