Are migrant workers leaving Ireland?

[thejuggler]

Are migrant workers leaving Ireland?

Just wondering what peoples impressions are. As the recession trundles on and more and more workers lose their jobs are migrant workers choosing to move on to other countries in search of work?

I can only speak for my workplace where in an office of circa 100 people we had between 5 and 10 migrant workers. In recent months as things got slack about 15 people have been laid off. Two or 3 of those have been non irish and from speaking to them they say that their plan is to leave Ireland to either return home or move onto pastures new.

Looking around in society generally there seems to be more Irish people working in retail and catering. 12 months ago there were fewer irish in these jobs.

Are the 'new Irish' in general choosing to move on rather than stick around to see if things improve. There is the stereotypical view that they will stay here as the benefits are more generous but in reality is this the case?

[Benz]

We had to let a few people go late last year and from what I hear the non-nationals that we let go did leave the country.

I hear on the grapevine as well that some of the non-nationals who still work here are prepared or preparing to go back home if anything happens to their position within the company.

If it comes to it I'd be sad to see them leave to be honest, they are very good workers, much better than their Irish equivalent.

But on a macro level we need people to leave if the Economy is to survive (of course, hand in hand with that is we need those who are staying to upskill or retrain).

[Mugabe]

I doubt the Nigerians will leave. A large majority of them weren't working anyway and will benefit from a downturn where prices on items are cheaper.

I feel strongly that anyone, and i mean anyone, who is on the dole should be made to clean streets, cut grass or what ever the state needs doing in return for the scratcher money.

[Aindriu]

I feel strongly that anyone, and i mean anyone, who is on the dole should be made to clean streets, cut grass or what ever the state needs doing in return for the scratcher money.

Oh right, so an IT professional who has been made redundant through no fault of his/her own should clean streets? Feck off ye amadán!

[code twinkle]

Oh right, so an IT professional who has been made redundant through no fault of his/her own should clean streets? Feck off ye amadán!

Why not? Unless you think certain work is dishonorable?

[FutureTaoiseach]

I question this. I think the influx is slowing down (e.g. fewer PPS no.s being issued to foreign-nationals - down to 1,500 a month for Poles), but I have seen zero evidence of a mass-emigration of foreign nationals. My friend Colm says he has heard this is happening, but I have not seen the evidence. Indeed, with all due respect to them, it's hard to enter a single shop in Wexford town where the majority of those employed are Irish. They tend to be Eastern Europeans, sometimes with a very poor grasp of English, resulting in an unfortunate incident where I asked for chicken-nuggets and instead received chicken-wings with bones in them. The social-welfare system will keep them here. Indeed, they would be better off on the Irish dole than working in Poland. The Habitual Residency Condition needs to be tightened up. Bleeding-heart liberalism must give way to economic and fiscal realities. Nor can another huge influx be ruled out, given the impending collapse of the Latvian and Hungarian economies. Their peoples could be forgiven for feeling betrayed the promise of blooming-economic landscapes (to borrow Helmut Kohl's vocabulary) has turned into such a damp-squib. To those who insist migrants are leaving, I recommend a perusal over this article in today's Irish Times, which reports that just 2.5% of the 200 person queue for jobs at Londis were Irish (!):

...It was like a rewind of the past 10 years, the 10 years that have made our cities carbon copies of the British high street. There were more than 200 people in that queue. It got a lot of media coverage.
If you had been watching the RTÉ news at nine o’clock that evening in a casual manner – and many of us find this the best way to watch the news these days – you would have seen the queue of job-seekers as they stood patiently in the sunshine. And you would have said “things have come to a pretty pass”.
The queue for jobs is one of the most powerful images of an economic depression. Indeed the footage I saw later in the week had been shot on a mobile phone and posted on YouTube, under the heading “Irish Recession”.
By yesterday it had received 32,047 hits. On YouTube the related video is a report by a French television station entitled Ireland: A Job Lost Every Five Minutes.
Séamus Griffin, managing director of the Griffin-Londis group, had been surprised by the number of people who had turned up to apply for the jobs. “I’d expected quite a few people but not that many,” he said on Friday. There were 12 interviewers waiting for the job applicants.
The interviews took from five in the evening until 10 at night. Some people queued for two hours. The Londis staff provided them with tea and coffee. It was the perfect recession story.
Or maybe not. For one thing there were more than 100 jobs to be filled. Séamus Griffin, who runs a total of 16 Londis stores in Dublin’s city centre and at Sandyford, as well as three Subway sandwich stores, is opening three new Londis branches in the Dublin area, at Adamstown, Stepaside and Lucan.
According to Griffin, less than 2½ per cent of the people in that queue were Irish. “A huge amount from Pakistan,” said Griffin. “A huge amount from Brazil. The Brazilians have a great networking system.”...

[Mugabe]

Oh right, so an IT professional who has been made redundant through no fault of his/her own should clean streets? Feck off ye amadán!

Unfortunate as it is, no one should get money and do nothing. If they look for work; fine. If they dont have work the state should give them some.

There should be no excuse other than disability to be idle in this country. Maybe force smoe IT professional to go and makr some football pitches for the local gaa or soccer team. why not?

[Chrisco]

Entirely anecdotal I know, but on my road there are three houses that previously housed Poles that are now up for rent within the past three weeks.

[Eorna]

I doubt the Nigerians will leave. A large majority of them weren't working anyway and will benefit from a downturn where prices on items are cheaper.

I feel strongly that anyone, and i mean anyone, who is on the dole should be made to clean streets, cut grass or what ever the state needs doing in return for the scratcher money.

Of Course. We don't want them having time to set up their own business or upskill, when they could be polishing the cobble stones. Basically your idea is dumb, not practical, and would be counter productive for the economy - were you a member of the PD's by any chance.

[Benz]

Of Course. We don't want them having time to set up their own business or upskill, when they could be polishing the cobble stones. Basically your idea is dumb, not practical, and would be counter productive for the economy - were you a member of the PD's by any chance.

If you are in receipt of the taxes of the citizens of this state then you have an obligation to do something in return if it is asked of you.

The rest of the world upskill by night or set up their own businesses at the weekends or whenever they get a chance, I know because I've done both.

"your idea... would be counter productive for the economy"... that's absolute nonsense. You don't understand what you're talking about.

Get real. Quit whining and do what you're told. The rest of us do.

and by the way, I've never voted PD in my life.