Ireland's immigrants return home, fear of racism.

[dirtysquatter]

@Persius

In the US, it’s not just the poor who’ve become poorer, but also many people who consider themselves middle class. The same pattern has happened to a lesser extent in the likes of Germany and France. I expect to see the same happen here. Only the super wealthy will be really immune.

You’re forgetting the lawyers, doctors, chemists, publicans, veterinarians etc. etc. Ireland is full of closed shops and most of them aren’t run by what are usually thought of as labour unions.

The “professions” in Ireland have been feather-bedded to almost the same extent as the public sector and have at least as much political influence.

The preferred investment asset for many of these groups (and the political class) has traditionally been property. I believe that this goes some way to explaining the skewed tax treatment that it receives.

First post…I’m a big Pin fan… Well done all, especially the mods.

[windy]

@daltonr

If I was a low income native Irish worker, I don’t think my fear of economic displacement by immigrant competition during a recession would be irrational.

It really doesn’t matter whether there are immigrants or not. If you are a low income worker in Ireland during the boom, then you’re going to lose out during the downturn in any case.

By definition if you’re bottom of the pile there’s going to be more competition for your piece of the pie.

So while fear of economic displacement might be rational, a belief that it’s the immigrants that you have to worry about and the xenophobic attitude that springs from it is irrational.

It’s possible that immigrants are willing to put up with very poor conditions and comforts because they see it as a few years of hardship to save up a lot of money. Or one family member endures hardship here so that he can send money home to his family.

The Irish have done this in other countries when they’ve gone abroad.

The history of immigration around the world is that within a generation or two immigrants have pulled themselves up the economic ladder. Their kids are attending colleges, becoming professionals etc. It happens surprisingly quickly.

As a society we need to ask what has to happen to enable the natives to pull themselves up in the same way. Can we do any more? Will there always be an unemployable segment of society, who pass on their unemployable status to their offspring? Can the cycle really be broken?

If there are familes who can’t pull themselves up generation after generation, is that our failure or theirs?

Given that immigrants show that it is possible to get ahead, should we take any notice of people who complain about immigrants “taking their opportunities”?

I don’t know.

-Rd

This is a fundamentally flawed analysis of immigration.
In the USA there are not two and three generations of hispanics and each one has performed worse than the previous one.
It is widely believed it is because they came in such large numbers,uneducated ,unskilled.
They continue to speak spanish as a first language even two generations later.
The critical difference between 19th century immigration is that was required then was unskilled labour .It was in demand .There were no social welfare structures.It was sink or swim .Many sank but no one cared.

Now the hispanics can go on welfare and stay on it for generations.There is a huge overrsupply of labour.

This is the type of immigration we have had in Ireland.Most of it was for unskilled labour projects.The legacy will be a large rump of immigrants permanently on welfare and resented by Irish workers.