Facts about Irish immigration and emigration

Irish facts 5

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This page explains the recent turbulent history of Ireland and briefly explains why we have experienced so much immigration and emigration in the past 150 years or so. Firstly, an explanation since the two words are often confused - remember that they describe a perspective:

• definition of immigration = flow of people into a land, country or dominion; the imported people are not native to that country.
• definition of emigration = flow of people from a land, country or dominion; the exported people are native to that country.

Thus, let us take the situation of the Irish people who had to make the terrible decision to leave their native land during the 1840s due to famine. They were born in Ireland and left - from an Irish perspective they were (and are) emigrants. Many departed for the USA - to the citizens of that country the Irish were immigrants. For an account of an Irish emigrant, see my Expats pages and Tony Ward's blog.

This short preces also reminds us that the Irish people knew the hardships involved in leaving one's mother country, probably never to return. Being a family-oriented society helped the Irish emigrants to survive in their adopted lands, including the UK, USA and the southern hemisphere.

• Irish emigrant fact: Although there are over 5 million people living in present day Ireland, there are an estimated 20 million of Irish descent scattered throughout the world.
• Irish emigrant fact: Thousands of Irishmen fought for foreign armies from the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century. They fought with distinction in Spain, France, Russia and Austria. In the twientieth century, despite problems at home (rebellions, etc), they fought in tens of thousands on the western front and helped in the defeat of the Germans. Even in the Second World War, thousands of Irishmen volunteered to join the British to fight the Nazis.

Modern Ireland is something of a dichotomy; having lost millions due to emigration, our thriving economy results in the lowest level of emigration in recent centuries. The other part of the dichotomy is that our economy attracts a large number of economic migrants; over 5% of the population in the Republic of Ireland are Polish!

These new immigrants are very necessary for the economy since we don't have enough labour. Part of Ireland's success is due to good training and vocations at secondary level education, attracting a large number of highly-technical manufacturing industries in recent years. The lack of unemployment amongst educated Irish has left a gap for more menial work, filled by the increasing number of immigrants.

I have nothing against our immigrants but I must confess that we Irish have little experience of dealing with people beyond our limited cultural boundaries. Thus, the majority of native Irish bear no grudge against them but are ignorant of the situation of these immigrants. The influx is good since it forces us to broaden our horizions. Indeed, our ancestors who survived the uprooting process and thrived in new lands know more about dealing with diversity and different cultures, particularly how to integrate. Those of us left to 'man the fort' need to understand the needs of our new friends - after all, we should learn from our history and remember that the Irish abroad were not always given a warm welcome. They survived because of their congeniality and gradual integration.

All we ask from our new neighbours in some patience and understanding, and an attempt to integrate into our diverse and lively culture. Peter Scott (editor).

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