Just One of the ‘PIIGS’ or a European Outlier? Studying Irish Emigration from a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The return of high levels of emigration has become one of the most debated and sensitive social topics in Ireland in recent years. But Irish emigration continues to be discussed in the singular rather than the plural. This paper compares Irish emigration to other Eurozone states that also encountered serious economic difficulties following the onset of the global financial crisis to highlight international trends and specify national differences. All of the 'PIIGS' experienced increased emigration after the crisis. Yet Irish citizens left in much greater numbers per capita than their Eurozone counterparts, with only Portugal bearing any similarities. This was because Irish emigrants possessed valuable transnational human, cultural and social capital that enabled them to access liberal labour markets outside the Eurozone. They possessed skills desired by attractive destination states; they spoke the same language and shared similar cultural traits as their hosts; and they were able to call upon recently renewed Irish networks to further facilitate their move abroad.

Tracking the leavers: towards a better understanding of doctor migration from Ireland to Australia 2008–2018

“…Emigration has been a feature of Irish life for centuries [1]. Ireland’s economic downturns of the 1950s and 1980s were accompanied by waves of mass emigration, primarily to England and to the United States of America [2], but Australia has also been a very significant destination [3]. During Ireland’s economic boom, 1995–2008, the then Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Bertie Ahern, claimed to have strengthened the Irish economy and to have ‘delivered… an end to the days of forced emigration’ [2, 4].…”

Overcoming “Crisis”: Mobility Capabilities and “stretching” a Migrant Identity among Young Irish in London and Return Migrants

“…In addition to what Cairns () stated as an obvious willingness to migrate to English‐speaking countries, we found an even broader openness to the world through globalizing identities, where English skills are relevant but only one aspect of the identity and capabilities of being mobile. Young Irish people do not draw solely on their ethnic identities but more on other aspects like, for instance, the inter‐ethnic professional identity of a teacher (Ryan, : 1676) and on networks (Glynn, ).…”

“…Openness to the world, and a sense of a global or European belonging, co‐exist with being “very proud to be Irish” (Chris, 35, interviewed in the UK). Yet, Irish people's global mobility capability needs to be interpreted carefully in policy terms, when combining resourceful national and global identities, an awareness of historical traditions of migration (Ryan, ) and in situations of economic crisis (Glynn, ). Research participants were self‐conscious of what we could call a double‐privilege in a globalized world – being native English speakers and, at least in part, having a “white privilege”.…”

The “Irish question”: marginalizations at the nexus of sociology of migration and ethnic and racial studies in Britain

“…In the 1950s, one in three of those entering England were from southern Ireland (Delaney 2013, 119). Substantial migration from Ireland resumed throughout the 1980s (Gray 2004) and again in 2010 (Glynn 2015). However, Irish migration has not been subject to sustained analysis by English sociology of migration probably for two main reasons: Irish migrants are not seen as "proper" migrants and because they have not been perceived as part of the "race relations" problem, as defined by official discourses and duly analysed by academia, due to whiteness and presumed cultural similarity.…”

“…This wider historical lens may offer insights and question some of the assumed "newness" of migratory trends in this century. As Irish migration to Britain increased again following the 2008 recession, lessons from the past may not only be relevant to other intra-EU migrants but also to new generations of Irish arrivals (Ryan 2015;Glynn 2015).…”