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Turned a corner?
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Source: http://migration.ucc.ie/
So? this 25% of Irish returning in that year represents what % of users leaving in the year these people left?
so how many is many?
so out of everyone who immigrated in 80s how many (%) returned?
same for 90s and each other decade...
My question is quite genuine and the tone of your post implies that you are sitting on these stats, so please do share them
so once again how many is many?The 1980s.
In the 1980s a number of factors combined to create a very difficult economic climate. A large part of the blame must be attributed to a massive increase in the public debt. This can be dated back to the General Election of 1977, when a "give-away" election manifesto led to the abolition of most local taxes. The increase in debt came at a period of painful re-structuring within Irish industry and at a time when the need to reform the Common Agricultural Policy was becoming a dominant EU theme, not least because of Mrs. Thatcher’s efforts. At the same time, emigration, which some had thought to be a phenomenon of the past, rose very sharply and rapidly became one of the cultural and social issues of the day, even though many politicians were slow to understand the implications (22).
Since that time, emigration has not ceased to be a subject of public debate. Much of the focus in the 1980s was on Irish "illegals" (undocumented aliens) in the USA and ignored the fact that the majority of emigrants still went to the UK. The NESC (23) report suggests that in the 1981-1990 period 68% of all emigrants went to the UK, 14% to the USA and 18% to other countries. This is not the place to examine the statistical difficulties in tracking Irish emigration flows, except to stay that the data which is available is incomplete and difficult to dis-aggregate.
Ultimately, the problem of Irish undocumented aliens in the USA was largely resolved by a number of measures: the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, which amnestied certain categories of illegal aliens including many Irish, and the various special programmes which have had the effect of creating new opportunities for Irish would-be migrants to the States - by the early 1990s up to 16,000 visas annually were available to Irish immigrants. However, the last of these programmes is about due to expire and one must wonder if the next few years will see a resurgence of the "illegals" phenomenon. For the first time since the 1950s, there is now a large, young, Irish immigrant population in several American cities. They are well organised and politically astute. Research indicates that, irrespective of their social and economic status, the social networking skills of the Irish, wherever they are, are still a key factor in determining choices of destination (24) The mere presence of such large numbers of young Irish is likely to encourage their younger counterparts to follow them.
During the mid-1980s a particular controversy broke out about the number of Irish "illegals" in the USA - was the figure 40,000 - 50,000, as the Government claimed, or more than 100,000, as a number of emigrant action groups asserted? Most commentators (including the present author) thought the lower figure was closer to the truth at the time, but the availability of better data from the 1991 Census has, if anything, lent weight to the higher figure.
This is because the 1980s, the years of emigration, were also paradoxically characterised by a phenomenon whose sheer scale had not been predicted by any commentator: substantial, even massive, inward migration. In effect, the number who left the country was even higher - by a great deal - than had been thought, but this was masked by the fact that far more persons than was imagined either came back to Ireland, or immigrated to the country as nationals of other countries. As pointed out by Courtney (25), there were approximately 472,300 emigrations from Ireland (26 Counties) between April 1982 and 1993; in the same period, there were approximately 263,500 immigrations.
The implications of this latter figure are stunning and have yet to be fully considered. It is one thing to consider the impact on Irish society of the absent Irish - and they are no longer so absent anyway, for a variety of reasons to do with mass communication and transport and the way we define "Irishness" nowadays . But the combined impact of the return migration of Irish people and a considerable leavening of foreign-born immigrants (whether of Irish descent or not) is bound to have major implications for the future of Irish society and culture. This phenomenon continues (see chart 6 and commentary below).
In retrospect, there was evidently a strongly demographic element in the return of emigration in the 1980s. As I have earlier pointed out, there was an unprecedented rise in births in the 1960s in Ireland. Even if the economic climate had been favourable, the fact was that more and more school-leavers - the baby-boomers of the 1960s - were entering an already over-crowded labour market in the 1980s. But the economic climate was not favourable and there was difficulty even in retaining existing employment. New job creation on the scale which would have been required was never in prospect (26). This is not intended to absolve the Irish government and Irish society for a phenomenon whose sheer scale shows that very large numbers of young people became involuntary migrants from a society which had no future to offer them. In the single year 1989 more than 70,000 people left the country, probably the highest figure for any one year this century.
Meanwhile, the choice of destinations of Irish emigrants has undergone a sea-change. The relative importance of the UK has declined while continental Europe has emerged as a major new factor in the equation; up to a quarter of Irish emigrants in some recent years went to the USA. While the latest statistics show a continuing high level of emigration, balanced by a continuing high level of in-migration, the overall impression must remain one of an extraordinary volatility. Chart 7 illustrates this trend (see also more detailed comments below).
and later...Conclusions
Whatever the negative consequences of modernisation (and leaving to one side the contentious question of how the term is to be defined), the late 1950s and 1960s marked the beginning of an ineluctable process of rapid change which is as yet unfinished. In their marriage and fertility patterns Irish people are no longer atypical. Ireland is slowly becoming a country of immigration - with as yet unforeseeable consequences - as well as one of continuing emigration. The current generation of Irish emigrants are both more likely to choose new and more varied destinations and are also more likely to return. In time, Ireland will experience the same dilemmas of an ageing population, soaring social security costs and skills shortages as other European countries - the major difference being that it will experience these problems a generation later than everyone else.
Ireland is still a part, in some respects at least, of the British labour market. There is still a significant migratory movement which is largely non-voluntary and which consists of under-skilled people for whom Ireland has provided few opportunities but who also find themselves at a relative disadvantage in the UK. It also remains the destination of choice for a wide range of latter-day Irish migrants, both voluntary and involuntary.
Continental Europe now constitutes a realistic and significant option for a large minority of Irish young people. Even if they are not totally representative, the base is broadening constantly and rapidly. However there is a danger that this may merely lead to the swapping of an Ireland-UK periphery-core relationship for an Ireland-Continental Europe one.
The above comments notwithstanding, the outstanding feature of recent Irish migration is its extraordinary volatility. The USA continues to be an attractive destination for a very significant minority, while year-on-year trends can fluctuate widely.
Return migration is a significant feature: Irish people were less likely (about 6%) at the beginning of the century to return than any other category of European migrant. This has now completely changed and return migrants are likely to be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years.
Migration is not purely a "rational", economically-based decision. Irrespective of stated intentions, it seems likely that migration for at least a period is a life-option for significant numbers of young Irish people
Emigration is, however, a complex and ultimately individual process. While there is a demonstrable link between high unemployment and high emigration we should be cautious in establishing linkages: many socio-cultural factors intervene and deterministic models are dangerous: post hoc and propter hoc are not the same. Thus, those most likely to be unemployed are not, in fact, the most likely to leave, whereas the urban middle classes, with better job opportunities, are highly mobile. Farmers show a low propensity to emigrate but persons from rural Ireland generally do not. It is important to guard against an over-simplistic application of structuralist perspectives such as world systems approaches, whereby all migrants tend to be represented as disadvantaged victims. Equally, the interpretation of migration as the "rational" choice, freely made, of persons wishing to better themselves economically, is simplistic and inaccurate and does not attend sufficiently to socio-economic and cultural influences. Finally, there has not been sufficient space in this brief survey to focus on non-economic factors but one may cite such cases as those women migrants who left Ireland because of an unwanted pregnancy or were disillusioned with social progress, persons suffering from AIDS who preferred to be in the UK or elsewhere because of better treatment and a more accepting social climate, and gay men and women who felt restricted by Irish attitudes (even though the law has changed and social views are slowly evolving).
Modest but significant numbers of people who are not of Irish ancestry are now immigrating to Ireland. Their impact is out of all proportion to their numbers as many settle in non-urban areas as counter-cultural migrants of a new kind. These and other kinds of immigration, even if only on a modest scale, are likely to continue. This raises important questions about identity and community which have previously been avoided. The Irish record of tolerance towards difference, as evidenced by attitudes and policies concerning the travelling community within the country, is, to put it mildly, mixed.
Finally, the Irish Diaspora is itself more visible in Ireland nowadays. This is fuelling a fascinating debate about identity, place and community - does "Irishness" repose in the specificity of place, one grandparent’s blood, or the ephemeral unity of thousands of people cheering a soccer team of mixed accents and mixed race, something which would have been unthinkable in the Ireland of the 1950s (40)?0 -
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