More than 20,000 people a year are emigrating from the Republic, the majority of them young, ill-educated and marginalised, according to a survey published today. Many of them end up unemployed or ill, live in poor housing and enter unrewarding occupations.
These are among the findings of a study of emigration commissioned by the Irish Episcopal Commission for Emigrants and the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas.
The report found a need for substantial support services both among the new and existing emigrant populations in the main host countries, Britain, the US, Australia and in the EU.
The study found that, although emigration has fallen since the 1980s, some 31,000 people are leaving Ireland every year. In 1998 21,000 left the Republic and the most recent figures indicate 10,000 left the North.
The report found little evidence to support the image of Irish emigrants today as highly educated, upwardly mobile and successful.
"The situation of Irish people appears to deteriorate post-arrival in Britain and the evidence is remarkably consistent across different groups in different locations," it says.
Sixty-five per cent of the 1.2 million Irish-born people living abroad live in Britain and about 50 per cent of today's emigrants go there. "They experience high rates of unemployment and illness, a low rate of upward social mobility, live in poor housing, enter unrewarding occupations, suffer a distinct level of discrimination and present a high rate of social problems, including alcoholism and suicide," the study found.
A startling statistic is that Irish-born people constitute the largest ethnic group of prisoners in Britain. There are about 1,200 Irish prisoners serving sentences abroad, in countries as far apart as Brazil and Cuba, Thailand, Spain and Morocco.
After Britain, the US is the most popular destination, with 17 per cent of the Irish-born living abroad residing there. This includes 70,000 illegal immigrants, with an estimated 4,000 more arriving every year. Although the visa initiatives helped, the recent stricter immigration laws mean that it is now almost impossible for the undocumented to regularise their situation.
According to the report, "of the 740 people who approached the Aisling Centre in New York in a nine-month period in 1998, 91 per cent were undocumented. Only 11 per cent had a university degree."
Bolstered by Government support for EU directives on labour migration, emigration to the EU has almost doubled.
The report stresses the need for a coherent policy on emigration, with substantial Government support for NGOs (non-governmental organisations) helping emigrants. Currently that support amounts to only £1 million annually.
It urges the Government to establish a time-limited task force on emigration, give sole responsibility to the Department of Foreign Affairs for the area, maintain accurate data and analysis of emigration trends and devise coherent policies in partnership with NGOs.