A distinguished sociologist, Liam Ryan, has described emigration as "the centre of the Irish experience of being modern" when over one million Irish-born people live overseas, most of them in Britain, the United States, Australia and Canada, but many tens of thousands of others throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. When account is taken of the perhaps seven million people who have left this country since the 17th century and their descendants it is not difficult to understand how the figure of 70 million people around the world identifying with Ireland is arrived at. It is extraordinary, given these facts, that the subject of emigration and its consequences has been so little investigated by researchers and so inadequately addressed by generations of Irish politicians. A dull fatalism has rather characterised the subject, based on the assumption that little could or can now be done to provide sufficiently high employment in Ireland to prevent involuntary emigration. Often this has reflected a combination of guilt and embarrassment in confronting the subject and a lingering but rarely articulated assumption that emigration was final and for good and most unlikely to involve a return movement. As a result institutional, welfare and cultural relations with the Irish overseas has been left shamefully underdeveloped by successive governments. This work has been left largely to voluntary organisations and networks.
Two important developments have helped to shift attitudes in recent years towards the Irish overseas. Economic growth and major political confidence in Ireland have re-opened the subject in a more constructive fashion. This was articulated most memorably and acutely by President Robinson in her theme of the Irish diaspora, a term she introduced to public discourse. This coincided with a marked revival of interest among people of Irish background in the US, Britain and elsewhere, stimulated by multicultural and identity politics in these societies, and provoking an interest in ancestral roots, usually independently of events in Ireland.
Gradually it is being more widely realised that the "existence of this vast extended Irish family creates an immense reservoir of goodwill towards Ireland", in the words of the previous government's White Paper on Foreign Policy last year. Going into a century when smaller states should cultivate such supports, and world politics and economics become more integrated, it is being better understood that the possession of a diaspora can be turned to the advantage of all concerned. But if this is to be so more attention will have to be paid to developing such links and to understanding emigration and developing more comprehensive policies to deal with it. Much more public discussion of the issues involved is called for, to develop more inclusive policies towards the Irish overseas. Politicians face a real challenge to minimise involuntary emigration by giving a higher priority to the creation of employment. Much more can be done to promote the welfare of those who do leave; the material and political resources currently devoted to this are disgracefully minuscule. The issue of votes for emigrants will and should not go away - it would be useful to have comparative research on how other states have handled this question. There is also room for fresh thinking about institutional and consultative links with representatives of the Irish overseas.