Diary of a Gen Z student: Why do young people want to move away from Ireland?

Jane Cowan: I definitely think about leaving Dublin after graduation.

I’m nearly 20. It’s an odd age. When I went into college, it was the first time I really noticed my peers starting to move in different directions. Some of us went to college, others worked, or became apprentices. We all pursued different things. But one thing I have noticed since this divide is that most young Irish people have a similar plan for the future: we want to move away from Ireland. And I find it upsetting in some ways, though I understand. I definitely think about leaving Dublin after graduation.

I’m the youngest of four children. My oldest sibling moved to London after his undergrad. He did a masters degree in London with the intention of staying there to work afterwards. That’s exactly what he did – he still lives there. My sister moved to Melbourne in May. She had a job in engineering in Dublin, but still she left. And she’s planning to stay for a few more years, at least. My other sister has finished college and also has a great job. But she, like so many other young people, is thinking about leaving Ireland. This is a common picture of an Irish family where the children are now young adults. So many of us plan to leave.

I know the Irish diaspora is nothing new. But from what I’ve gathered the reasons for it have changed. In the past, it was more so out of necessity that people left. My parents tell me about people leaving because they couldn’t get jobs here. Even during college, my parents went to New York for summer jobs to pay their college fees, because they had so few options in Ireland. But the difference now is that we are making active choices about what we want our lives to look like. Of course, different job opportunities are playing a role in all of this. But a lot of highly skilled young people with jobs are still choosing to leave. So, there’s clearly a lot more at play here.

For one thing, the price of accommodation here, especially in Dublin and Cork, is a major issue. You will struggle to pay less than €1,000 a month. Most of your salary will disappear on rent. 

And the standard of that accommodation is rarely high. Run down buildings, often with very poor finishings, that don’t hold the heat. And that’s if you can get the accommodation in the first place. So, it’s no surprise that people are looking for better.

But that’s still not the whole picture. So many young people struggle with the lifestyle here, me included. The only way that we socialise is with alcohol. Not a cheap activity. And not a particularly enriching one either. It’s the same pubs and the same drinks every weekend. A lot of us also spend so long commuting every day. My bus from Meath to college in Dublin, takes the guts of an hour and half, each way. You feel like you spend half of your life commuting.

And I also wonder what the working culture will look like for me, when I leave college. Full-time student to full-time employee will be a significant shift. I see how little time my parents have in the evenings, once they get home from work. When my sister moved from working in Dublin to working in Melbourne, she was struck by the work/life balance. That we live to work in Ireland, was something she was glad to leave behind. And that balance is something that so many of us are chasing.

It’s not a desire to work less that’s driving so many of us to leave. It’s a desire to live more. More affordable, or more available accommodation is crucial. But so are shorter commutes, a better work/life balance, more options for socialising. When you’re 20-something, you have the rare opportunity to design the life you want. That’s what young Irish people are doing. I don’t want to spend my life commuting for three hours a day. And I know I don’t have to, especially if I had access to better transport links.

But I do feel a real sadness at the thought of so many young people leaving Ireland. There’s excitement in the adventure, of course. But being so far away from family is tough. I guess that’s what Eavan Boland meant by ‘all the old songs’ that Irish emigrants carry with them. That sense of connection to home is indelible. I take comfort in that too. There may be a lot of us leaving, but we won’t lose our sense of home easily. And hopefully, a lot of us will come back.