Who is shouting stop now?

 Leaving Ireland wasn’t a choice, it was a necessity. I had to go because I had no way to earn a living for myself there, and I was becoming more withdrawn from friends and family when I couldn’t find work. Ireland couldn’t offer me what I needed so I had to create a better existence elsewhere. (Laura Masterson. Irish Times 12/10/12)

The jobs fair recently held in Dublin and the attendance of many agencies recruiting personnel for world-wide destinations is a new take on emigration. Even a Canadian government minister attended the jobs fair sending a message that Irish people with skills were more than welcome in Canada. This is a monumental shift in attitude when one compares the attitude of modern Canada with the response of a Canadian government official during the second world war when asked how many Jewish immigrants should Canada take. His reply was; None Is Too Many. Now Canada recognises that in getting emigrants from Ireland it is getting an asset for free, young, healthy, educated, energetic people with an emigrant energy to succeed and be creative.    

This is a strange take on immigration at a time when the United States and European governments and their ministers consistently send out messages that emigrants are neither needed, wanted nor welcome. Indeed, in national election campaigns and at political party conferences an immigration topic is part of the menu in trying to rouse a lethargic audience. In such instances immigrants are usually included in the same sentences as terrorists and criminals. That kind of rhetoric feeds the justification of fascist thugs to attack poor immigrants as is the case in Greece and other European states. Is this history repeating itself?

But there is another side to this coin of emigration. Irish government spokespersons and their apologists are condescending, as in the past, about emigration. They are saying that the present economic downturn is a temporary abnormal blip that will right itself when growth returns to the economy and those emigrating will be back in a few years having gained experience. How can such voices and their media apologists continue to contradict history? Since its foundation, the Irish state has annually exported half of those coming into the workforce. That is the normal situation. Ireland, like other post-colonial societies depended on immigrant remittances to keep a population of parents, grandparents and children nourished.

What was abnormal in Irish life was the recent economic splurge that almost gave full employment. The reason that progress tool place in Ireland over the first decade of the century arose out of its membership of the European Union, foreign investment, low corporation tax and a well-educated workforce. That energy band in the population that kept that economy serviced is now emigrating to Canada, Australia and other places. These countries recognise the benefit of young energetic, educated and skilled emigrants as a free asset. One seldom hears an Irish institutional spokesperson equate emigration as the loss of an asset paid for by the Irish exchequer and developed by their parents and communities. Growth in an economy depends on these emigrants, the energy band in the population. Without them growth will not happen. And if it miraculously does happen, Ireland will, as the Czech Republic did after its Accession, seek immigrants from other destinations to bolster its workforce. 

Irish emigrants, like other emigrants from small, post-colonial, branch economies, are much more likely to be sceptical about return migration. Aware of the reasons for initially having to emigrate they will be hesitant about returning as small economies dependant on larger economies offer little long-term security.

Also, many emigrants carry with them unresolved anger at having to leave comfortable homes, jobs and lifestyles for the uncertainty of the unfamiliar because of economic mismanagement, cronyism and clientism. Sadly, emigration is an Irish cultural trait. Emigration, the draining of energy from society, reinforces the traditional structures whose policies cause emigration to perpetuate themselves. 

Ireland is losing an asset. Canada is getting great people.

We asked for workers. We got people instead. (Max Frisch)