60% of emigrants quit their jobs to go abroad
A major report to be published today shows that, contrary to the view that unemployment is the main driver of emigration, 47% of those who left in the past five years were in full-time employment and a further 13% had part-time jobs.
Report co-author Piaras MacÉinrí said the finding revealed a worrying pessimism about the country’s economic recovery.
“It’s a vote of no confidence in the future and in that sense, it should be taken seriously. It should serve as a warning to policymakers,” said Dr MacÉinrí.
While many emigrants said they left for “adventure and experience”, Dr MacÉinrí, who carried out nationwide research with a team from University College Cork, warned against using the findings to back the idea that emigration was mainly a lifestyle choice as Finance Minister Michael Noonan claimed.
He said while many emigrants had jobs of some sort, the research showed they had little job security, low job satisfaction, and poor career advancement hopes.
People who were ambivalent about emigrating often classify their move as a choice, he said: “They still want to feel they own their decision... But if you look at the figures for 2006-2013, there was a fourfold increase in the number of people emigrating. That’s not all choice.”
Another alarming feature of the report is the scale of the brain drain, with graduates over-represented among emigrants, with implications for the country’s recovery.
That trend differs from the last period of major emigration in the 1980s when the proportion of skilled people among emigrants was the same as in the general population as a whole.
“There is a gap emerging,” said Dr MacÉinrí. “In the 1980s, unskilled emigrants could go undocumented to the US or go to London to work in construction but since 9/11 that option is not open in the US and half the rest of Europe are in London.”
The report, being presented at an international seminar on emigration at UCC today, comes as CSO figures show 1,000 people emigrate every week — a level close to the worst period in the late 1980s.
Among its other findings are that rural areas are hit disproportionately, with one in four rural households having lost at least one member to emigration since 2006.
It also shows 28% of emigrants have previous experience of living abroad, and it found 17% of emigrants were sending money home to pay mortgages here.
Half the 470,000 people who emigrated in the 1980s returned to Ireland but the proportion could be smaller this time around. Fewer than 10% of those who emigrated on fixed-term visas said they intended returning when their permits expired and, while 40% of recent emigrants said they would like to return in the next three years, just over half of them felt this was likely.
“We can’t say how many will come back but the difference between those who say they want to and who believe they will is an indicator of people’s mood at the moment. That mood is not hopeful,” said Dr MacÉinrí.
- The seminar will be streamed live at http://exa.mn/y4
