Archive explores experiences of returned immigrants

NEW research on Ireland’s returned migrants shows they broadly welcome the growing multiculturalism of Irish society.

Their stories have now been captured in a unique oral archive.

The research showed that those who left Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s but who have returned in recent years empathise with the new arrivals in Ireland, having been new arrivals themselves elsewhere, said project researcher, Dr Caitríona Ní Laoire, from University College Cork’s Geography Department.

Dr Ní Laoire, together with UCC colleague Liam Coakley, and Johanne Devlin Trew from Queens University Belfast’s Centre for Migration Studies/School of History, spent the last two years researching the “life narratives” of 92 returned migrants.

They targeted nurses, construction workers, graduates and those working in IT to get a broad range of views.

Their recorded interviews form the basis of an oral archive titled Narratives of Migration and Return, which was launched by UCC this week.

“Together with the project website, they comprise a valuable all-island research resource,” said Dr Ní Laoire.

There was little research on the experiences and characteristics of return migrants, a project spokesperson said. An understanding of return migration is vital to understanding recent changes in Irish and Northern Irish society and culture, she said.

“It was felt, therefore, that there was a need for research that would record and explore the migration experiences of some of those who left Ireland during the decades of high emigration in the 1970s and 1980s, and of their experiences of returning to Ireland at a very different time.”

The interviews will be available to researchers in the future, while details of the research process will be available on the new project website.

The project, funded by the Higher Education Authority North-South Programme, was an all-island collaborative project, involving UCC’s Department of Geography, the Centre for Migration Studies (Omagh), the Department of Sociology (University of Limerick) and School of History (Queen’s University Belfast).