What’s next for Irish immigrants as Canada heads into recession

In recent years, Canada has been high on the list of popular destinations for Irish emigrants, with 5,000 Irish citizens settling permanently in the North American country since the start of the recession in Ireland.

Canadian economic growth has softened in the past few months, however, as it entered a recession for the first time since the financial crisis, due to declining economic growth between April and June of this year.

Despite this, the country may not be heading into a long-term recession, as growth picked up again in June for the first time in six months.

The modest recession has put pressure on Canadian Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, hoping to be re-elected for a rare fourth consecutive term next month when Canadians head to the polls on October 19.

Harper has been quick to say that although Canada may have entered a “technical” recession over the summer months, the economy was again on the rise from June with economists also agreeing that the 0.5 per cent growth in June set a good precedence for the third quarter.

"Despite the technical recession materializing, it does look like the Canadian economy is jumping back, is rebounding strongly in the third quarter," said Derek Burleton, deputy chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank.

As many as 5,000 people have settled in Canada since the start of the recession in Ireland six years ago, 3,200 Irish nationals becoming permanent residents, while more than 1,500 have become Canadian citizens.

The number of Irish citizens choosing permanent residency in Canada has almost tripled in recent years also, rising from 395 in 2009 to 1,015 in 2013.

Despite the initial rush for Canadian visas when the applications opened for months ago (the first round of visas being snapped up in 12 minutes), there are still some 600 visas left unclaimed in the quota for Irish citizens.

Another popular destination, Australia, has also been suffering from a recent decline in economic growth although their GDP still increased by 2.3 per cent from 2014.

The GDP hardly moved in the second quarter of 2015, rising by just 0.2 percent, resulting in the worst economic growth experienced by the Australian economy in two years.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, this was the slowest quarterly pace since the first three months of 2013, with national net disposable income also falling in June by 0.7 per cent.

Michael Blythe, chief economist at Commonwealth Bank stated that despite the fall in growth in the last quarter, the economy is still growing, just as a slower rate: "A lot of it appears to be statistical payback. Nevertheless, smooth out the last few quarters and it looks like we're running at somewhere around a 2.3pc annual rate so it's a soft outcome whichever way you cut it."