Irish emigration hits 20-year high

September 23, 2009|Associated Press

DUBLIN - Net emigration has returned to recession-ravaged Ireland for the first time since the Emerald Isle’s economy began to boom in 1995, according to government statistics released yesterday.

Eastern European job seekers who flooded into Ireland following the EU’s expansion in 2004 are leading the way out, following Ireland’s rapid plunge into double-digit unemployment over the past year.

But the figures show that Irish nationals, particularly recent school graduates, also increasingly are looking overseas for work prospects, reviving the brain drain that bedeviled Ireland from the potato famine of the 1840s until the Celtic Tiger boom of the 1990s.

The report said 65,100 people emigrated in the 12 months ending in April. It was a 20-year high and 40 percent higher than the previous May 2007-April 2008 period.

When combined with an immigration slump of 30 percent, Ireland recorded a net emigration flow of 7,800, the first since 1995.

The major destinations for emigrants included nearly 23,000 to Eastern Europe, 12,000 to the United Kingdom, 6,600 to other EU nations in northern and western Europe, 3,700 to the United States, and 20,000 to the rest of the world, chiefly Canada and Australia.

Joblessness has surged over the past year to 12.4 percent, a 14-year high.

The downturn has particularly hurt the prospects of immigrants, who according to recent studies suffer ingrained discrimination.