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Majority of Irish want fewer immigrants in Ireland

Poll also shows many expect to emigrate from Ireland because of downturn

By
DONAL THORNTON
,
IrishCentral.Com

Published Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 8:55 AM
Updated Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 9:27 AM

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Majority of Irish want fewer immigrants in Ireland | Irish News | IrishCentral




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13 percent of Irish people expect to leave the country over the next five years
13 percent of Irish people expect to leave the country over the next five years

The worsening recession in Ireland is hardening attitudes towards immigrants there.

A new poll from the Irish Times shows that over 72 percent of Irish people want to see less non-national immigrants.

At the same time, 13 percent of Irish people expect to emigrate over the next five years.

The sentiment was even stronger amongst young people.

A massive 81 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds said they wanted fewer immigrants in Ireland while 40 percent of the same age group expected to emigrate over the next five years.

The poll said that the majority of people who said they wanted fewer immigrants in Ireland were from rural and economically-depressed areas.

Ireland has traditionally been a country that supported a culture of emigration but the so-called Celtic Tiger attracted many immigrants as the country struggled to fill job vacancies

The poll also showed that people had chosen financial security (77 percent) and health (70 percent) as the most important factors in their life.

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Majority of Irish want fewer immigrants in Ireland | Irish News | IrishCentral


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Posted by plasticpaddy on Nov 30, 2009, 05:23 PM EST
no, I guess not.
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Posted by IrishEddy on Nov 26, 2009, 11:41 AM EST
That's why I never travel outside the country, to many foreingers live there.
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Posted by jacersisityourself on Nov 25, 2009, 08:10 PM EST
P’off ciarriai. We Irish know Kerry and it’s not spelt ciarrai. You’re talking through... well, through.. through.. erm, in the nicest way possible, I’ll say through your hat!
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Posted by ciarrai on Nov 25, 2009, 06:20 PM EST
I told you Irish back in 1972 that you didn't know what having loads of foreigners in your country would be like. You thought we Yanks were bigots and racists. Well, welcome to our world.
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Posted by jacersisityourself on Nov 25, 2009, 04:53 PM EST
To P’Lee I particularly say that it’s probable that some of the 13% of the 72% he refers to would certainly like to see fewer migrant workers staying here. When I responded (in chapters! – feranbegawdsake pls pardon me goin' on...!!) to p’paddy’s post yesterday, I wasn’t thinking of one of my sons who luckily holds a job in Dublin at the moment, if uncertainly so. Today, he phoned me to say he was planning to go to Australia after Christmas “for a year or so until this blows over”. One of my other sons left Ireland and visited Australia as part of a round-the-world trip sojourn a few years ago – he never made it home; he met a young woman there, married, and has a family now... and is unlikely to return home. What do you think my thoughts are after his younger brother’s phone call to me today? Should I tell the younger that he might be taking up a native Australian’s job if he stays in that huge continent of a country?
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Posted by jacersisityourself on Nov 25, 2009, 04:47 PM EST
As for comments by others, notably p’nurse and P’Lee, referring to Irish emigrants to USA and Canada and the ‘millions’ of Irish in these countries, they are a bit wide of the mark. May I remind (some!) people that the so-called millions of Irish (the bulk of 70m of them according to IrishCentral) are descendants of Irish emigrants over centuries when these huge countries were relatively barren of workers, and are not that many of native-born Irish over the last few scores of years. (Three of my father’s family made their homes in Canada during some of Ireland’s bleakest unemployment times. Their children and grandchildren love coming ‘home’ to Ireland on visits). I agree about the undocumented Irish, it is rightfully a sore point with Americans, just as it is with undocumented Mexicans and other nationalities. Personally, I would have little sympathy for the undocumented – they cheated on their visas and stayed illegally in a country hosting their 'visit'. The problem now is that many undocumented have made their homes, careers and families in the USA over the years (it's really a huge country, easy to get 'lost' in) and there’s now so many of these people since the ‘60s, ‘70’s and 80’s etc that the human aspect has to be looked at. We in Ireland certainly don’t expect ‘Kow-towing’ to pressure from the Americans of today... it’s a problem that needs to be sorted - politically, hereditarily and humanely, not just for the Irish undocumented but for other nations’ undocumented people in the USA - esp given the implications of marriage and lack of freedom to travel.


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