How Irish jobseekers fell out of love with the UK

Brexit and demographics have forever altered the flow of workers across the Irish Sea

Despite steady income rises, housing remains a key issue for young Irish workers, with those emigrating doing so in the hope of cheaper accommodation, a challenge understood to be just as difficult in large UK cities such as London and Edinburgh.

The UK’s post-Brexit landscape has had a dramatic impact on migration trends. Growing anti-immigration sentiment and a desire by Europeans to remain in EU countries has led to a stark shift in Britain’s immigration dynamics, one that Ireland is no longer a large part of.

Once crossing the sea in their millions to escape famine and economic hardship, the Irish have arrived in waves to the UK since the 19th century, returning through the Great Depression in the 1930s, the cultural and social revolution of the 1960s, the Thatcher era of the 1980s and the fallout from the global financial crisis in the 2010s.