Austerity, Short-term Economic Recovery and Public Perception of Immigration in Ireland

Abstract

The economic crisis of 2007/2008 did not affect all members of the European Union (EU) to the same extent. In the Irish case, the economic crisis and subsequent period of austerity paralleled an erosion in public support for immigration. However, little is known about how public perception changed during a period of short-term economic recovery, like that experienced in Ireland from 2014 to 2018. Using repeated cross-sectional survey data unique to Ireland, this work captures change in attitudes towards immigrants during the pre-crisis and late-austerity periods. Moreover, this research evaluates the importance placed on two immigrant attributes intimately linked to the labour market — education and skills. We provide evidence of an emergence of more moderate views of immigration during the recovery period, but only in the perceived importance of educational qualifications. Perception of skills remains notably unchanged. Of note, both attributes remain more important in the public eye relative to before the economic crisis. In other words, short-term economic recovery does not automatically translate into a more welcoming reception. We confirm that crises and periods of austerity erode public perception of newcomers, particularly when immigration is framed in terms of skill-based economic contribution. However, this work reveals some of the scars of a rapid and deep economic downturn alter the context of reception in a durable way, which remains notably resistant to short-term recovery.

Attitudes towards immigration and refugees in Ireland: Understanding recent trends and drivers

“…Interestingly, the largest decline occurred in people's views that immigration was good for the economy, while their views of immigration's impact on making their country a better place to live or their country's cultural life remained somewhat more stable. This suggests a potentially strong link between the economy and people's views on immigration in Ireland, as had been found in previous research in Ireland using European Social Survey data (McGinnity and Kingston, 2017;McGinnity et al, 2018;Creighton et al, 2022b; see also Chapter 1).…”

“…Similar to attitudes towards immigrants, overall attitudes in Ireland also recovered as the economy recovered (McGinnity et al, 2018;). Creighton et al (2022b) add nuance to this overall finding by analysing the impact of the economic crisis and recovery on the importance placed on migrant attributes (e.g. skills and education).…”

Changing social and political attitudes in Ireland and Northern Ireland

“…During the period of recession and austerity, attitudes remained relatively depressed, before entering a period of recovery, coinciding with the recovery of the Irish economy. This too parallels evidence on attitudes to immigration in Ireland, which became more positive as the labour market recovered (McGinnity et al, 2018;Creighton et al, 2022). Feelings that the government should reduce income inequality substantially increased over the same period before declining again, while political voice (measured from 2007 onwards) followed a similar pattern of post-recession improvement.…”