Canada finds ripe picking in Ireland

Opinion

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This article was published 24/10/2010 (4931 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DUBLIN, Ireland — Canada may become home to thousands of Irish immigrants looking to escape their economically shattered homeland in 2011.

The Irish are increasingly frustrated with their government after the economic downfall that has brought the country to its knees and unemployment to a staggering 16 per cent. With a new budget set to cut spending and raise taxes, residents are lining up in droves to seek out emigration possibilities.

More than 5,000 people, the majority of them younger than 30, attended a recent “Working Abroad” expo at Dublin’s RDS venue, queueing for hours for access to 21 exhibitors from Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Among the most popular were the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick, who laid out mouth-watering statistics and promising career opportunities in fields such as energy development, aerospace and defence, as well as construction.

Each province aimed to attract Irish students looking to further their education abroad. An endless stream of statistics noted the provinces were on the low end of the country’s unemployment list and boasted about their relatively cheap housing costs.

Canada’s national health care system was also a major selling point as Irish citizens grow increasingly intolerant of the country’s heavily criticized national Health Service Executive.

A group entitled CORDA, the Colchester Regional Development Agency, attempted to lure young professionals to Colchester, a booming development north of Halifax experiencing steady growth in key industry sectors such as manufacturing.

The University of New Brunswick touted its excellent engineering faculty, which is ranked in the top 20 per cent in North America, while St. Thomas University was hailed as second in Canada for academic challenge and student-faculty interaction.

Notably absent was the fact Canadian universities and colleges dramatically increased international tuition rates to help weather the recession, with more hikes to come next year.

Prospective emigrants focused, instead, on the possibility of finding long-term employment.

“A lot of people are just entirely fed up with the government here, they’ve failed us in every respect. The banks were bailed out with our money and now the public is left to weather the storm financially, but there just aren’t jobs to be had,” said Michael O’Kane, looking to find a new life for himself and his Polish fiancée.

“During the Celtic Tiger, there were a large number of Polish immigrants that came to Ireland because they could find casual employment rather easily. A lot of these people have gone back home now, but the ones that remain are still pretty successful because the Irish just won’t work in convenience stores and petrol stations.”

While the Irish government recently announced a drop in the number of people on social welfare, many believe that is due solely to emigration, which is at its highest since the mass exodus of the 1980s. The Irish Central Statistics office reports 65,300 people had emigrated as of last April. It is believed almost 25,000 were younger than 25.

Youth Work Ireland has called on the government to commit itself to a plan aimed at keeping Irish youths in the country, including increasing work placements.

However, the recent bailout of the Anglo Irish Bank has pushed Ireland’s public deficit to over 30 per cent of its average economic output.

Ireland is set to reveal a budget next month that aims to pick up the nearly 50-billion-euro tab for the banking crisis. This caused newspapers to declare the “death” of the country altogether, and had scores of people lining up to speak with Canadian visa specialists.

Manitoba has announced that, beginning in 2011, international graduates from any post-secondary program of at least two years in length will be able to apply to the Provincial Nominee Program without a job offer. As a result, immigrants will be able to apply for permanent residency faster.

“While there will be quite a few people who won’t bother even trying to come back in the next few years, I’m optimistic about returning once the current crisis dies down a bit. Ireland’s still home and my family would be crushed to see me leave,” said O’Kane, who echoes the sentiments of many young Irish who believe that the country may still return to the glory days of the Celtic Tiger.

There are some 4.5 million people living in Canada who claim to have Irish heritage. If the budget follows through on proposed cuts to public spending and wide-ranging tax increases, it is likely that number will increase.

The downside to emigrating to Canada seems to be the cold. But as O’Kane sees it, “At least it’s a dry cold so we could go skiing and that. We’re all pretty sick of the rain anyways.”

Liam Brennan is a Winnipeg writer living in Dublin, where he is completing a master’s degree in journalism.