Considering moving our family home to Ireland from Korea.

Hi Saram and Maninasia.

I've had a somewhat similar experience.

Moved to Thailand in 2002 bringing (Irish) wife and 1 year old son with me. Loved living in Bangkok, great lifestyle and social scene etc. Had the opportunity to stay permanently but ultimately decided I wanted a "normal" schooling for the kids (daughter born in Bangkok early 2005) and for them to be able to walk to the local school, play GAA with the local club, cycle around the locality, get into scrapes, keep dogs, climb trees etc etc rather than attend international schools in Bangkok and live in a bubble with very little outdoor activity (too hot, too much smog etc) and very little interaction with family or friends who they would have long term as so many expats bounced through for 2-3 years and then off somewhere else.

When my son was approaching time to go to national school (Sept 2005) we decided to return. It's been great for him as the 4-5 pals he made in that first year of national school are still his best mates. I was literally just looking at them two nights ago sitting around hanging out in our back garden as it was the first day of Covid restrictions being lifted and thinking what a good decision it was to come back. They are all 19/20 now and on different paths (some in University, some working etc) but they've played hurling/football together from age 5 to 16/17 and shared so many life experiences that they are a really tight group who look after and support each other. It's personally a great comfort to me to know that they can rely on each other etc.

My daughter was 6 months old when we returned so she's had a traditional Irish childhood and at 15 is doing the normal head wrecking stuff most/all girls here do but I wouldn't have it any other way

One thing which has completely changed for the better here over the past 15 years or so is multiculturalism. Back in the day an Asian or half Asian child would have been a bit of a novelty in school and societal ignorance meant they would often experience some form of teasing/bullying/racism but thankfully that has completely changed and very little attention is paid to kids/people who are "different". My son has ginger hair and I'd say he gets as much (or as little thankfully) ribbing/teasing as anyone and I don't think he's ever experienced anything serious in that regard.

What I'd say to both of you is that coming back with directly relevant and recent experience in the job/career you'd like to plug into here will be key to securing employment which you'll be professionally happy in and rewarded for such that you can start to build your family life here. Securing good solid employment will be the foundation for everything else to fall into place and will give you the initial security you'll need.

I don't know what your employment is Maninasia but Saram, other than language schools for overseas students I don't think there's much demand for teaching English here unless of course you are a qualified teacher and can teach the national curriculum but even then I think getting a full time teachers job here is quite hard. If you have other skills/qualifications and want to use those in a new job here my advice would be to switch into a job in that area ASAP so when you come home you are experienced in that role and can compete for jobs in that area straight away.

Covid will cause a massive recession here so there will be challenges getting employment but if you can overcome that hurdle there could be significant benefits in that you'll be able to rent/buy at much lower prices than pre Covid and with working from home being encouraged, depending on the job you have, you won't necessarily have to pay top price to live within commuting distance of Dublin/Cork/Galway. You can buy/rent much further afield where prices are lower and you get more for your money. If you only have to physically attend work one day a week a longer commute is a good trade off to be able to spend 4 days a week working from home.

I can't comment much on the challenges your Asian wives/partners will face here. It'll obviously be a huge cultural and personal wrench for them to leave their home and families behind but presumably they've visited here and have a good handle on what to expect already. Getting their English as proficient as possible before they arrive will really help them to assimilate into society and quickly build up a group of friends who are likely to be Mum's of other kids going to the same school etc. It'll be so important for them to make the effort to build that social network rather than stay home and keep to themselves. IMHO that would be a disaster and a ticking time bomb for the whole move/relationship.

The kids, particularly the younger kids, will adapt no problem but again it'll be important that they embrace the social and sporting scenes in order to build their own circle of friends.

Hope that gives you some sort of perspective.

BTW, once my kids are through University (5-7 years time) if I got another chance to move back to Asia I'd jump at it as would my wife. It's not that we don't love family life here but having had a taste of life in Asia we'd love to return once the kids have flown the nest :P