In elections in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Austria over the last year, immigration has figured prominently. Right-wing parties, campaigning for very tough migration curbs have attracted a significant share of the vote. In contrast, migration was not a prominent issue in November’s election in Ireland, and no single-issue anti-immigrant candidates were elected. Why?
For generations, Ireland was a country of emigrants, and most of us have close relatives living abroad. Our patron, St Patrick, was an immigrant. So culture may play a part. Our immigration also looks quite different from elsewhere in Europe.
The share of our immigrants who are graduates is roughly double that elsewhere in the EU – more than 60 per cent of our working-age immigrants, whereas for the EU as a whole it’s a third. This difference has a number of implications. Immigrants to Ireland find well-paid employment easily. More than 40 per cent of those working in our IT sector are immigrants, where average pay is almost €90,000. They are more likely to speak the local language here, English. They find it easier to integrate with the local population, especially when they have an Irish partner. About one in every seven children born here in the last two decades have had one parent born elsewhere, and one Irish-born parent.
Graduate immigration to Ireland has been an engine of growth in our economy. Without them, growth would have been slower and tax revenue – key to supporting our rapidly ageing population – would have been lower. Immigration has helped rebalance the generations, to a greater extent than elsewhere. In practical terms, immigrants also do a lot of the caring – 30 per cent of our health service workforce has come from abroad, up from about 20 per cent a decade ago.
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In other EU countries, immigration has also contributed to growth, but to a lesser extent. Denmark, Sweden, France, Spain and the Netherlands are among the countries attracting sizeable numbers of graduate incomers.
Inward population movement has played an important role in sustaining the EU economy, through an influx of people of working age. Without immigration, the population of the EU would have fallen by 3 per cent in the last 10 years. Instead it rose by 1.6 per cent. Without this inflow of working-age adults, the dependency ratio would have risen, leaving each worker supporting more children and retirees.
The growth in anti-immigrant sentiment across the EU tends to ignore or misunderstand the significant economic contribution made by inward migration, particularly in countries that would otherwise see their populations shrink.
But while immigration is mostly a positive economic story, about a third of those entering Europe had left school early. That group faces more difficulties finding work, and they are more likely to live in already poor neighbourhoods. Proficiency in the language of the host country is also more likely to be a problem. All these factors make it harder to integrate into local society. Germany, Italy and Spain have a higher share of poorly-educated newcomers. It is very important for their host countries to try to remedy the education and language barriers that inhibit successful integration, and enable these groups to make a significant economic contribution in their new homes.
As well as people from outside its external borders, the European Union, with free movement of labour, also experiences considerable internal population movement. Close to a third of migrants in EU countries have come from another member state. As we experienced ourselves, there was a lot of movement westward after the accession in 2004 of former Eastern Bloc countries. Over the last 20 years, four of the newer member states (Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia and Lithuania) each lost at least an eighth of their population through emigration. Not surprisingly, the pre-2004 EU members thus have a higher share of migrants per head of population than the newer member states – 16 per cent in the “old” EU as against 6 per cent in newer member states. Ireland’s thriving economy puts us near the top of the list, with 22 per cent of our population born elsewhere.
We know ourselves the debilitating effect of a sustained outflow, particularly when better-educated and more enterprising young people opt to leave. Improved economic conditions in Latvia and Lithuania have reduced emigration in recent years – not so for Romania and Bulgaria. In Poland, improved economic conditions have encouraged some of the post-2004 wave of emigrants to return home, adding to economic success.
That’s been the story of our own emigrant “homing pigeons”, whose time abroad has built experience, skills and contacts. When they return to live and work in Ireland, they earn a 10th more than those who never left.
