Significant numbers of immigrants are leaving the country within a few years of arriving here, new official figures indicate.
For the first time, officials at the Central Statistics Office have been able to show how many immigrants are in insurable employment by matching Personal Public Service (PPS) numbers issued to foreign nationals with data from the Revenue.
This data shows that employment activity starts off at a high level, but then drops off within the space of a few years, indicating that many migrants are moving on and not staying here for the longterm.
For example, while 62 per cent of newly arrived foreign nationals who received a PPS number in 2003 were employed, this fell to 36 per cent by 2006.
The figures also indicate a high degree of seasonal work among immigrants, with the number of people getting PPS numbers increasing dramatically during the summer months.
A large proportion of migrants with PPS numbers, however, never work. The proportion of those who do not enter the labour force has varied each year from between 22 per cent and 27 per cent.
CSO officials were quick to point out yesterday that this does not necessarily mean they were involved in employment in the "black economy".
Instead, it said these numbers may also include students, home-makers, retired people or those who stayed for a short period of time before returning home.
Figures indicate that migrants from EU accession countries, such as Poland, have the highest labour force participation than any other group, including Irish people. For example, in 2004 just 10 per cent of accession country arrivals did not enter the workforce.
Foreign nationals from accession states account for most arrivals into the State, accounting for 61 per cent of all non-Irish nationals who received PPS numbers last year.
The analysis of data also shows that the vast majority of accession-state migrants are very young. Of the 139,000 accession arrivals last year, the overwhelming majority were in their 20s. Some 42 per cent were aged 15-24 and another 43 per cent were aged 24-44. Only 15 per cent were younger than 15 or older than 44.
More arrivals came from Poland than from any other country. Last year there were 94,000 arrivals from Poland, followed by the UK at 22,000.
Most arrivals are likely to be male, although there are signs that the gender gap is beginning to rebalance. Some two-thirds of migrants from the 10 accession states were men in 2004. This proportion of males has narrowed slightly in recent years, falling to 60 per cent.
