IRISH immigration centers across the U.S. are reporting an influx of new Irish immigrants over the past few months, specifically in the month of January. A worsening Irish economy appears to be behind much of the new influx.Orla Kelleher, executive director of the Aisling Irish Community Center in Yonkers, told the Irish Voice on Tuesday that there has been a "striking increase in the number of new immigrants" in the Yonkers/ Woodlawn area of New York. "We just had three Irish girls in looking for work," said Kelleher, explaining that new Irish people visiting the center is becoming a daily occurrence. "Compared with the past few years, when we saw very little emigrants coming through our doors, this is a huge turnaround."Tom Conaghan from the Pennsylvania Irish Immigration Pastoral Center reported that his agency has also several new faces coming looking for work and accommodation weekly. "Certainly since Christmas we have had a lot of new faces from Ireland. Some of these are people working in the information technology industry, but a lot of them are young immigrants coming for work and also the whole new experience," said Conaghan.Both Conaghan and Kelleher stated that several of the new immigrants hail from Northern Ireland. "While most of the new immigrants who have come into the Aisling Center are from the north and north west of Ireland, there are certainly a wide range of reasons for immigrating to New York varying from a downturn in the Irish economy to a desire for a new life and search for adventure," said Kelleher, mentioning that there is an equal number of males and females arriving."While most of the girls seem to have degrees, they seem to be looking for work in the hospitality industry. For the guys, most of whom arrive here with trades, they come into us looking for jobs in construction," she said.Irish immigrants are also venturing to the West Coast of the U.S. Father Brian McBride from the Irish Pastoral Center in San Francisco told the Irish Voice he was surprised yet happy with the new immigrants. "For a while there we were losing more than we were getting so it's nice to have new Irish coming back out again," he said. Agreeing that most of the young people who frequent the center looking for jobs and accommodation are from Northern Ireland, he also said that some of the recent immigrants he encountered hail from the west of Ireland. "Unemployment is still high enough in the west so the young people are coming to America to seek jobs," said McBride.Kelleher points out that very few immigrants who have come into her center have come alone. "They usually make the transition to a new life in New York with at least one other friend or a family member," she said, admitting that sometimes the center encounters a group of friends looking for work.Father John McCarthy from the Irish Pastoral Center in Quincy, Massachusetts agreed that there were times over the past few years when not one new immigrant would grace his doorstep, simply because there were no new immigrants coming into the country. Now, he said, they are slowly returning. "Although we aren't getting 20 or 30 new faces a week we are certainly seeing a lot of new and younger Irish immigrants," said McCarthy, who feels that more and more people are leaving Ireland to come to Boston and various states in the U.S.According to Kelleher, most of the immigrants are not worried about the consequences of overstaying their three-month legal stay. However, she does advise all new immigrants to seek out a sponsorship through an employer to obtain a work visa. "Their (new immigrants) hesitation to commit to a definite length of stay prevents them from pursuing this option, just as it did over the past two decades with many Irish people still here over 10 years later on an undocumented basis," she added.All the immigration centers interviewed reported that most of the new immigrants arriving for work and accommodation are in their early to mid twenties. Kelleher also pointed out that several more immigrants are coming to New York and various parts of the U.S. and don't need the services of an immigration center, thus pushing the numbers of new immigrants entering on a daily basis higher than can be recorded."There are a lot of new immigrants who are coming here and have already a job and accommodation lined up so it isn't until down the line when they get on their feet that they call into us at the Aisling Center," said Kelleher.