A clamp-down on illegal immigration in the US following the September 11th attacks has boosted migration to the Republic, the information and counselling agency, Emigrant Advice, said yesterday.
At the publication in Dublin of a new guide for returning emigrants, the group's information officer, Ms Paula O'Sullivan, said tighter immigration laws in the US were having a knock-on effect on the Irish-American community.
She said the agency was receiving reports of undocumented Irish citizens seeking to return home, along with "high-flying workers in the information technology sector who have found their companies have folded since September 11th".
Irish support agencies in the US have advised undocumented workers to restrict their movement within the country, as immigration check-points had been set up at city-entry points.
Ms O'Sullivan noted "there is also little or no chance of an amnesty at this stage", adding September 11th had "acted as a catalyst in people's minds that it is time to come back".
Acknowledging this factor, the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, said he believed more people would be choosing to return to Ireland because of the changing circumstances in the US.
Returning Irish nationals were the largest immigrant group in the year ended April, 2001, accounting for 39 per cent of 46,200 immigrants. The majority of returned Irish were aged between 25 and 44.
Emigrant Advice co-ordinator, Ms Anne O'Donovan, warned many such people were facing severe difficulties, particularly in finding accommodation. "Increasingly, those returning are having their dreams dashed," she said. "Rents are high. Wages aren't as good as those they left abroad and some end up going away again."
She said the Government should "oblige" local authorities to make provision for returning emigrants, and in particular homeless Irish people from Britain, when drawing up housing strategies.
One woman at yesterday's publication, who returned to Dublin five weeks ago after 28 years in London, described her "absolute shock" at the crises in housing and public transport. "I was going to live outside of Dublin until I realised the area I would have lived in was serviced by just one train a day."
The woman, who did not want to be named, added she was disturbed by the insecurity of tenure in the rented accommodation sector: "I had to bring bank statements and references to an interview for the house I am living in, yet I did not get to know anything about the person who was interviewing me."
Ms O'Donovan stressed that while the number of people emigrating from the Republic fell below 20,000 last year, reports indicated those leaving were "more socially excluded and vulnerable than before. Many have addictions. Some have mental health problems. These are the people whom the Celtic Tiger has rejected."
Instead of "congratulating ourselves" on the increase in returned emigrants, she said we must recognise the gaps in healthcare and other services which still force people to leave.
The booklet is available free from Irish embassies and consulates, or Emigrant Advice, which operates under Crosscare, the social care agency of the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin.
