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Majority of Irish students plan to emigrate, survey shows

76 percent plan to emigrate after finishing their education

By
KERRY O’SHEA,
IrishCentral Intern
Published Thursday, December 29, 2011, 8:04 AM
Updated Thursday, December 29, 2011, 8:04 AM

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Graduates in Dublin protest the lack of employment and need to emigrate by the Famine Ship, Jeanie Johnston in Dublin
Graduates in Dublin protest the lack of employment and need to emigrate by the Famine Ship, Jeanie Johnston in Dublin
Photo by Jeanie Johnston


A survey conducted by the Student Marketing Network found that two-thirds of students polled in Ireland plan to emigrate once they complete their education. The primary reason for emigration is due to better job forecasts in other countries.

The Irish Times reports that the Student Marketing Network conducted their survey through oxygen.ie, and ended up retrieving results from 1200 students across the country. Of the 1200, a staggering 91percent are worried about their futures in Ireland. Another vast majority view emigration as being very likely in their future.

37 percent of those polled said that they would emigrate immediately after graduation, while 39 percent said that they would do so only after they had “exhausted the possibility of finding a job in Ireland first.”

The remaining 24 percent fraction do not plan on sticking around for long either, stating that they plan to emigrate in “the next few years.”
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28 percent of the students pointed to Australia as their destination of choice for emigration, with the US at 20 percent. Other areas for emigration included Canada, the United Kingdom, and continental Europe.

At 52 percent, more than half of those polled plan on staying abroad for “the forseeable future.”

A whopping majority of 92 percent of the 1200 criticized the Coalition for not doing enough to prevent emigration for young people from Ireland. Further, 82 percent said that free fees “were a myth” and that 86 percent did not support the reintroduction of full fees.

Colman Byrne, managing director of Student Marketing Network and oxygen.ie, who also served two terms as president of the Union of Students Ireland, expressed his concern regarding the statistics gathered from the latest student poll.

“Our best and brightest are planning to leave our shores and the survey results show that the Government’s actions are exacerbating an already terrible situation. How are we supposed to build an economic recovery without our graduates?” Byrne said.

​
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10 Comments

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ciaradexy | Jan 04, 2012, 11:06 AM EST
Curitiba-Yeah the Australian visa thing is pretty much a rite of passage nowadays. I loved my time there! There are a few Americans on this website complaining about the influx of foreigners into Ireland. Why would it be ok for the same Americans to flood into the UK? They'd be as foreign there as they claim Poles are here. In my experience, British people with any sort of Irish link dont need the same acceptance as Americans do. For example, my best mate was born in London, her parents are from Tipperary and Carlow. She studied in Trinity and visits here at least 6 times a year. She, along with a lot of Brits are in a very different situation in comparison to someone who had a relative who left here during a famine 150 years ago. Another mate of mine from Reading, his mam is from Waterford. Its not even a conversation starter as no one is all that interested. We are friends because we enjoy hanging out with each other not because someone has an Irish parent. Dya get me?? I dont think Brits with Irish links and Americans with Irish links have all that much in common. I think us and the Brits however,have a whole load in common which is probably why so many Irish have British mates and vice versa.

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Curitiba | Dec 31, 2011, 06:34 AM EST
It would be a good way for the Irish community in the UK to get to know and to forge cultural connections with our Irish-American cousins (not literally cousins, but I use this for want of a better word.) At the moment we know little of each other, we are as separated as the North and South Koreans. It would serve notice that the world Irish community is a lot bigger than just the people in Ireland, and the first generation who emigrate. It also consists of the 2nd, 3rd, etc generation descendants of these migrants from previous waves of emigration who keep the Irish culture alive in all parts of the world.

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Curitiba | Dec 31, 2011, 06:25 AM EST
Oh yes, I recall that they extended the 1 year backpack visa to a 2 year backpack visa if you agreed to pick fruit or veg on a farm for 3 months in your first year. Probably because Aussies and Kiwis have always been allowed to spend 2 years in the UK on a WHV. Now if only the USA would introduce one, I reckon we would be only too pleased to extend the same courtesy to our American friends here in the UK.

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ciaradexy | Dec 30, 2011, 11:14 AM EST
You can go to Australia on the working holiday visa, get a job in your field if youre lucky, spend a year or 2 doing it there which gets you your experience, get sponsorship which gets you working rights for 4 years and then maybe sponsorship leading to citizenship or if like me, you went to DIT you'll have experience in your field before going. Plenty of my friends and family have gone over and got jobs immediately. Its not difficult!

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Curitiba | Dec 30, 2011, 05:51 AM EST
I agree with CountyKilburn.On the BBC website it shows an unemployed graduate deciding to go to Australia. How can she emigrate without a job offer or relevant work experience? Something about this doesn't ring true. You need a relevant skill as specified by DIMIA and quite a lot of work experience in that field, so you can't just pitch up in Aus and demand a job. I should know-I spent 6 years there on a permanent visa before the recession, and it was a nightmare and very expensive to get. Unless of course most of these people are going out on 1-year backpacker work visas and hoping for the best or staying there illegally. There are few people tougher or harder-working than the Aussies, and there are plenty of them unemployed as well, so I don't see why they are giving jobs to the Irish ahead of the Aussies, if that is true at all.

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Penny55 | Dec 29, 2011, 10:05 PM EST
Are you still be lonely? Do you want someone to companion with you. My- friends told me a nice place ------ 'Millionairesocial.C-O-M There are so many beautiful /successful people!,young girls / rich men. to- int'eract with each other., "everything to everyone"dating \.marry .even, a nice club for y'ounger women and old'er men, or older women and y'ounger men, and Age is no problem. everything is possible!You do not have to be rich or famous

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CountyKilburn | Dec 29, 2011, 07:21 PM EST
Why do they keep churning out this propaganda that the Irish are all heading out to Australia, as if Australia’s tough emigration points system doesn’t apply to them? The only place this generation of Irish will be going is straight to the UK – where there are loads of them over already.

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Murph46 | Dec 29, 2011, 11:00 AM EST
Or -you could secede from Euro and become Germ-Ish,a subsidiary of Germany since they own you already.No one paid any heed to the admonishment that Socialism is fine till you have to pay someone else's bill.

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Caoimhin1937 | Dec 29, 2011, 09:57 AM EST
This is not surprising. There are no jobs in Ireland. Not even for the educated. In relative terms, this is worse than the Potatoe Famine as far as emigration goes. As long as we let Herr Merkel and her compatriots run our country, we are never going to recover. Our only option is to leave the Euro zone and default. In this way, our recovery will only take about two years. If we were going to take money from IMF, it is going to take 14-15 years to recover. If Ireland has a referendum that allows Germany to determine our budget, then we will never going to regain our sovereignty. To hell with Achtung.

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GeorgeDillon | Dec 29, 2011, 09:55 AM EST
What's the big deal? For every Irish graduate in the Departures lounge there's an intelligent young man or woman from Poland, Russia, Nigeria, Lithuania, China, Brazil, India etc. walking thru Irish Immigration. It's not depopulation, it's repopulation.

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