Gerard Hughes

The Impact of Immigration

Migration has been important for Ireland since the nineteenth century. For most of that time, migratory flows have been outward but occasional bouts of return migration have also occurred. It is only since the exceptional economic growth of the past decade that we have seen large and sustained inflows and that non-Irish immigrants have come to outnumber returning Irish migrants. Our purpose in this chapter is to assess the significance of this new era of inward migration. People are now clamouring to get into Ireland rather than rushing to leave it and that in itself is a powerful indicator of how much more attractive a society Ireland now is compared to the past. However, if we look deeper, a number of questions arise about what new migration patterns mean and what their impact will be. These questions concern the economic and social impact of immigration as well as the challenge of integrating the new Irish. The chapter begins with a review of recent trends in migration, and tracks the change from a pattern of emigration to one of immigration. A notable feature of present immigration is that it comes primarily from within the EU and so is less racially, culturally and religiously heterogeneous than that experienced by other immigrant societies. We then turn to the economic impact of immigration on the economy, focusing in particular on the labour market. This is followed by a discussion of the social impact of immigration, focusing on public services as well as the attitudes of the indigenous population towards immigrants. We then examine new survey data on immigrants’ experiences of racism and discrimination in Ireland. The conclusion discusses the need for a coherent policy for integration of migrants into Irish society as an essential requirement for the successful management of immigration.

Higher Education and the Labour Market in Ireland, 1981-1991.

Research in a number of OECD countries on the changing shape of higher education and the labour market for graduates has played an important part in the development of policies for education, research, and training. Very little research has been done in Ireland on these topics. In this paper we present a broad statistical picture of trends in higher education in Ireland during the period 1981-91 and the results of the first comprehensive survey of the career patterns of two cohorts of PhDs and professional engineers who graduated during the 1980s. First we consider the balance between the supply of and demand for third-level graduates and the first destinations of recipients of third-level awards. We go on to present the results of our survey, focusing on the current labour market status of PhDs and professional engineers, their patterns of external and return migration, and on income differentials between those who never emigrated, those who have returned to Ireland, and those who have permanently emigrated. We argue that the rapid expansion of higher education over the past decade has not been matched by demand for graduates in the domestic labour market. This raises a number of concerns regarding the returns to the substantial public investment in the sector, the capacity of the domestic economy to provide employment for, and utilise the skills of, highly educated graduates, and the danger of a process of credentials inflation. Ideally we would like to consider changes which have taken place in higher education at both university and non-university level. Unfortunately, comprehensive information is not available on the flow of graduates from non-university institutions and our discussion in the section on the supply of graduates will be confined to the university sector.

Pension Financing, the Substitution Effect and National Savings

The “graying” of Europe’s population has been accompanied by a number of reports which have drawn attention to decreases in fertility rates and increases in life expectancy which are likely to lead to substantial increases in the cost of pensions in the early decades of the next century.2 The Federal Trust report The Pension Time Bomb in Europe (Taverne, 1995) and the World Bank (1994) report Averting the Old Age Crisis describe these developments in stark terms heralding an impending old age crisis. Both reports argue that the only way to deal with this crisis is by radical change in which dependence on pay-as-you-go financed State pension schemes is drastically reduced in favour of privately funded occupational and personal pension plans. It is argued by Federal Trust and the World Bank that privatising pensions in this way will increase national savings. An increase in productive investment will, it is believed, follow from this. This, in turn, is expected to lead to higher growth rates which will enable the increased cost of pensions to be paid without increasing the burden on the State.

Multinational Corporations and Global and International Models of Pension Provision: Evidence from Ireland

In the debate about globalisation there are optimistic and pessimistic views about its effects on employment and conditions of work. Optimists believe foreign direct investment brings with it many employment opportunities and higher wages. Pessimists argue that it increases downward pressures on wages, conditions of employment, and social protection. Evidence on the effects of globalisation on wages, employment conditions, and social protection is limited (see Betcherman 1996). This may be because most of the countries in the Triad of North America, the European Economic Area, and Japan, which account for the bulk of foreign direct investment, do not distinguish in their statistics between domestic and foreign companies. Hirst and Thompson (1996a and 1996b) cite research by Lipsey, Blomstrom and Ramstetter (1995) which shows that the share of production by multinational corporations outside their home countries amounted to only 7 per cent of world output in 1990 and UNCTAD research which shows that the Triad accounted for 75 per cent of the stock of foreign direct investment and 60 per cent of the flow at the beginning of the 1990s.