While the Forum has in the past few months occasionally been criticised in the media as a talking shop, it’s clear the government is trying to demonstrate the impact of the event on its economic strategy. The report include specific projects in the areas of diaspora engagement,  economic policy, culture, innovation, tourism, greentech, international financial services, and agriculture and food. Among the ideas on diaspora engagement are:

• Global Irish Network – This network of 300 people in 37 countries was launched and held its first meeting on 4 February. The network is intended to serve as a resource for the Government in promoting Ireland’s economic, cultural and tourism messages in key markets.
• Regional “Farmleighs” – Meetings in a number of countries with visiting members will take place in 2010.
• Supporting business and technology networks – The Government has funded the Irish Technology Leadership Group in Silicon Valley with $251,000; Craig Barrett has been appointed the new chair of the ITLG. An Irish Innovation Centre is due to open in California “in the first quarter of 2010″.
• Farmleigh Overseas Graduate Programme – The Government is working to establish a programme to facilitate up to 500 graduate placesments abroad; the initial focus will be in Asia.
• Youth Forum for the Global Irish – The DFA is working with the Ireland Funds to convene a Forum in June 2010 for 100 younger members of the global Irish community.
• Gateway Ireland – John McColgan of Riverdance is moving this private-sector initiative forward, aimed at creating “a new high-quality Irish portal website”.
• Diaspora Bond – The Government is examining the feasiblity of extending the National Solidarity Bond, announced in Budget 2010, to non-Irish residents.
• Local Diaspora Strategies – Each Irish embassy is producing a strategy aimed at supporting and enhancing engagement with the local Irish community.

There are more proposals under the aforementioned other subheadings.  Some of the ideas that are under development include:

As someone who’s been studying Ireland’s engagement with its diaspora for years, it’s clear to me that we’ve entered a new era in our relationship with the Irish abroad.

Some of these ideas might be a hard sell (diaspora bonds, anyone?), but even more important than the new initiatives are the enhanced desire for engagement by the Irish government.  Recent years have seen extraordinary changes and an increasingly sophisticated relationship developing between Ireland and our diaspora. Part of this has been influenced by changing trends in global diaspora strategies, much of it by Ireland’s peculiar circumstances. It will be exciting to see how this relationship grows, and particularly how the Irish diaspora will respond to this increasing outreach.

See the entire report at the GlobalIrishForum website.

Related pages on GlobalIrish.ie:

• NY to get Irish Arts Center with €2.3 million grant
• Work starts on Global Irish Economic Forum idea
• Tweets from Global Irish Economic Forum
• Global Irish Economic Forum: a report
• Global Economic Forum East – China turns to its diaspora
• Global Irish Economic Forum: The speeches
• Global Irish Economic Forum: thoughts from participants
• Global Irish Economic Forum: first thoughts
• Count me out, says O’Leary
• 180 to attend Global Economic Forum
• Global Irish Economic Forum to focus on growth, relationship

• Would diaspora bonds work for Ireland’s finances?

Out of the 9,000 workers on the site, 10% are Irish, according to an RTE report. The president said:

‘This very exciting project is proving very beneficial to Ireland on many levels, first of all, as you know, the construction industry in Ireland has come to a bit of a stand still and there are a lot of people looking for opportunities outside Ireland. Many of them have found those opportunities here, builders, surveyors, project managers, architects and anybody involved in the construction business hoping to get work here.

‘Evidence of the Irish contribution here is all around, the names on many of the hoardings are very very familiar, all associated with the Irish construction sector, I am very proud that 10% of the work force here is Irish. They are involved in everything from lifting the blocks to major architectural projects. That’s very good news. That’s at the construction phase, and then there is the fit out phase.

‘That’s a very important element for us in terms of supplying goods and services. I was talking to one contractor this morning who bringing in cladding from north of Dublin. A good example of work being generated and opportunities being generated back in Ireland thanks to the Oympic site.’

During her visit, Ms McAleese also visited the Irish Centre in Reading. In London, she met the Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas and the Irish Chaplaincy in Britain, as well as the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith.

Related websites:

• RTE.ie: McAleese visits London 2012 site
• Remarks by President McAleese at a Reception at the Embassy of Ireland, London, 1st March 2010
• Remarks by President McAleese to Hammersmith Irish Cultural Centre, 1st March 2010
• Remarks by President McAleese to Reading and District Irish Association, Reading, England, 28th February 2010

Remarkably, it mentions the recent declaration by the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform that the issue is dead. From the editorial:

At least one advocacy group, the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, has declared the dream of comprehensive reform dead. It is urging incremental change, with modest reforms like the Dream Act. Other groups may follow. It is too soon to give up.

Some Irish activists have been criticised in the past for being too willing to look for a special solution that would assist the undocumented Irish with a separate solution. Yesterday, Niall O’Dowd, speaking on Pat Kenny’s RTE 1 radio show, said that he believed the only option was a series of piecemeal solutions. One that he mentioned was a  visa agreement between Ireland and the US similar to US agreements with Australia and Chile; this would give Irish people access to non-permanent visas, renewable every two years. While this would ensure continuing Irish access to the US, it’s a solution that would presumably be unavailable to the tens of thousands of Irish estimated to be in the US illegally right now.

The New York Times adds that legislation in the house is being prepared by Representative Luis Gutierrez, and a similar bill for the Senate by Charles Schumer and Lindsay Graham.

The Irish Echo seems to agree with the New York Times that there is life in the process yet. In last week’s edition, it said, “One source close to the legislative process admitted to what he called ‘a very challenging (legislative) environment’ but added that reports of reform’s demise were premature.”

Here’s hoping  it’s too early to give up the fight.

Related webpages:

• NYTimes.com: Reform, on Ice
• IrishCentral.com: Immigration reform is dead (Feb 20)
• IrishEcho.com: Reform not dead, but hanging by a thread (Feb 24)

On Friday, two young, recent emigrants wrote of their experiences. Paul Bradfield wrote that he is moving for an unpaid internship in The Hague, and hopes that employment will follow.

Here are a few excerpts:

I went not for the want of pleasure or enjoyment, nor to seek a “gap” year full of congenial experiences. The very term “gap” year implies that there is a distinct point in the future upon which the “gap” will be filled, whereupon one returns home to fulfil the innately human desire of carving out a career for oneself, or to simply settle into an agreeable existence in the place of one’s birth. Provided of course, you are able to return. Like many young Irish men and women who have gone before and will go after me, I go because I must.

Witness the exodus. The lost generation is leaving. Moreover, judging by the demographic of attendees of recent emigration seminars held around the country, married couples with young children are also embarking upon the uncertain but now necessary voyage of emigration, to make a better life for themselves and their progeny. To Australia, Canada, the UK and Europe they are heading.

Read the whole letter on the Irish Times website.

A second young person, Sarah Moore, wrote that she was “disgusted at the recent comments on emigration by the Tanaiste Mary Coughlan”. Sarah is a university graduate with a higher diploma in nursing who reports that she has had several job offers from English hospitals. She says:

I, a young person of 23, have recently moved to London to take up a job. And despite Ms Coughlan’s assertions about my generation, I did not move to enjoy myself. I left my family, my friends and all that I hold dear behind because I had to.

I moved because my native country has nothing to offer me because of the self-interest, the naked greed, the croneyism of those in positions of power in Government and in financial institutions. These are the people who robbed a whole generation of a future in Ireland and they are still making the decisions about our country.

Are we the most compliant nation on Earth, or what?

Read the rest of the letter on the Irish Times website.

And on Tuesday, a letter from an older emigrant echoed the themes of the two younger emigrants.  Tom Healy of Plymouth, England, emigrated in 1962 “not to enjoy myself but. . . to avoid a life of poverty in Ireland”. He says her comments “led me to reflect on how little the situation has changed since I boarded a flight at Dublin for Bristol.”

I had left school two years before; my parents could not afford to put me through higher education. My future, for what it was worth, lay in a succession of low-paid, insecure jobs with plenty of bouts of unemployment in between. I wasted reams of paper and expended a small fortune on postage to make job applications that seldom elicited an acknowledgment, let alone an interview.

In despair, I left for England, where I have lived and worked since. The leaving was difficult and painful. Fitting in took much effort, but eventually I adjusted to life here. For a few years I entertained the hope that I might be able to return and tried to do so, only to run up against the barriers which made people like me in the Ireland of the time unable to find work. I refer to the croneyism and insider relationships which plagued the Ireland of the time and appear never to have gone away. Those who achieved their place in the sun post-Independence had no time for those caught on the outside, for that would have required changes which might have reduced their influence and status and upset their cosy world.

Emigration, I must tell Ms Moore, is as much an instrument of Government policy now as then, and as in the 19th century. Those of us who leave provide the safety- valve that allows the rotten shower in power to avoid having to create a more just and fair society.

It might well be better to stay at home and raise hell to change the odiously corrupt system which existed when I was young and which seems to have changed but little in the almost 50 years since I left.

Read the whole letter on the Irish Times website.

This makes for bleak reading. It was only two years ago that Bertie Ahern was being lauded for putting an end to involuntary emigration. He himself regarded it as one of the key achievements of his administration, saying in his resignation speech:

In looking back on all the things I wanted to achieve in politics, I am proud that as Taoiseach I have:

- delivered on my objective to bring the peace process to fruition;
- delivered on my objective to see a stable administration based on the power-sharing model take root in Northern Ireland;
- delivered successive social partnership agreements which underpin our social and economic progress;
- delivered a modern economy with sustainable growth in employment and brought an end to the days of forced emigration;
- delivered on my objective to improve and to secure Ireland’s position as a modern, dynamic and integral part of the European Union.

What a difference two years makes.

An analysis from Davy has gotten a lot of news attention today.  The research report into the Irish economy says that we wasted the boom, and issues a damning verdict on how Ireland misallocated its investment from 2000 to  2008, resulting in poor infrastructure with inadequate roads, rail, schools, hospitals and telecoms.

One area where the report is suprisingly reassuring, however, is in the analysis of emigration.

This analysis of our capital stock has one glaring omission: human capital. Looking to the medium term, this is Ireland’s greatest strength. The economy has the highest number of graduates in the 25-34 population in the EU-27, with the exception of Cyprus. That proportion (and its average quality) may depreciate somewhat if recovery does not take hold and emigration accelerates. But so far the outflow through emigration has been hyped while ignoring the mix.

First, net inward migration has turned negative mainly because immigration (people coming to Ireland) has collapsed rather than due to a surge in emigration (people leaving).

Second, a high proportion of those who have left are low-skilled and worked in construction where employment has more than halved. Construction, by its very nature, is a highly labour-intensive and low-productivity industry. Workers tend to be mobile, and emigration from this sector will not particularly dilute the quality of human capital in Ireland.

Moreover, the nascent recovery of the international-traded sectors will keep many of our graduates at home. Longer-term, investment in education must remain the salient priority.

I would dispute the assertion that there has been no surge in emigration. The emigration figures from Ireland were up 43% between 2008 and 2009, and up 145% between 2004 and 2009.  The new phenomenon, of course, is that the majority of emigrants were going to the newer countries of the EU, and were thus presumably immigrants returning home.  This is obviously not the same thing as suggesting there has been no upsurge in emigration.

The characterisation of the current emigrant outflow being comprised mostly of construction workers and therefore not “diluting the quality of human capital” rests uneasily with me. First, I’m not aware of recent studies that break down emigration by occupational sector (please let me know if you know of any), so I’m presuming this is based on anecdotal evidence.  There appears to be plenty of anecdotal evidence asserting, however, that it is not just manual labourers but also third-level graduates who are leaving. (In today’s Irish Times alone, for example, two graduates tell their emigration tales.)

It’s also at odds with the Tanaiste’s recent comments that emigration today is comprised of those Irish young people who are emigrating “to gain experience” and “want to enjoy themselves’ and  are leaving “with degrees, PhDs. They are people who have a greater acumen academically and they have found work in other parts of the world.”

So on the one hand, we are reassured that we need not trouble ourselves with the upsurge in emigration because (a) it’s really not happening and (b) it’s not going to lower the quality of our labour force, and on the other hand, we need not trouble ourselves with the upsurge in emigration because these are highly educated people “who want to enjoy themselves”.

Obviously, this is a complex issue. We’ve heard very little of ‘brain drain’ with this upsurge of emigration, because the model of “brain circulation” has largely displaced the concept of permanent loss in migration thinking. We know from the boom that networks of well-educated Irish people can be an asset for our economy, no matter where they live, and many of them may eventually return if there is a return to substantial growth.

In terms of economic costs, emigration’s toll may not be all that harsh. Obviously, in the short term, emigration is a tried-and-true safety valve; sending off surplus labour will save social welfare money, and relieving the pressure on the unemployment rate will certainly make our economic performance look better on paper. And each unemployed person who leaves is one fewer potentially angry voter when it comes to election time.

But involuntary emigration carries very high potential human costs, and any analysis that does not take those into account is not looking at the full picture.  Davy might call it  ”hype”, but the concern over rising emigration rates reflects Ireland’s long experience with a phenomenon many of us thought was gone forever.

See the report on the Davy.ie website

Questioner: For the first time in 15 or more years, there is net emigration in Ireland. Once again we see Irish people leaving this country leaving this country looking for work. How long? How long is that going to last?

You have two things happening. We have had over – in the80s we had about a million people working. Two years ago, two and a half years ago, over 2.1 million people working. We have 1.8 million still working in this country.

We did have a lot of people who came from the new member states to come here. Many of them have returned home because the employment opportunities have not been afforded to them.

Equally we have a lot of people – young people- who have decided they will go to other parts of the world to gain experience and I think the type of emigration that we have -

Questioner: But your government was supposed to have ended that, the whole cycle of Irish having to leave Ireland.

It’s the type of people that have left have gone on the basis that – some of them, fine, they want to enjoy themselves. That’s what young people are entitled to do.

But moreover, they are coming with a different talent. They are coming with degrees, PhDs.  They are people who have a greater acumen academically and they have found work in other parts of the world.

And that’s not a bad thing. Because equally we still continue to have very many people who are working here from other member states, the EU and Northern Ireland.

Related web pages:

• See the full interview on thestory.ie (Emigration comments begin in the sixth minute of part 3)
• Hardtalk website
• Mary Coughlan’s website

The fact that emigrants must pay the tax was raised in the Dail today by Frank Feighan, Fine Gael’s TD from Roscommon South-Leitrim. In a debate over the Finance Bill, he said,

I agree the non-principal residence tax is a good idea for raising moneys for local authorities. However, having visited the Roscommon Associations in Manchester, Birmingham and London, I know many emigrants feel let down that the little house they have back in Ireland, some without even electricity or running water, will be charged this tax. They want to be good citizens but the local authorities are insisting they pay the €200 tax. That is an insult to the Irish diaspora which actually helped rebuild this country by sending money back from abroad.

The Government must apologise to those emigrants in the United States and the United Kingdom who have tried to keep a link with this country by keeping a small house, sometimes just a pile of stones, for not considering them when introducing this tax. It must be amended because the local authorities have not considered all factors involved.

This, clearly, is a case of taxation without representation. Is it right to levy taxes on citizens who are entitled to no representation in this State? Two centuries of post-Enlightenment thinking would say no. Is this democratic?

Related websites:

• TD Frank Feighan’s Dail speech on KildareStreet.com
• Factsheet on the Non-Principal Private Residence from the Irish Taxation Institute
• Non-principal private residence – online payment service

Forced emigration is again a reality in County Mayo for an entire young generation. This spectre, which haunted Mayo for two centuries, is now back as a reality. That’s why I now receive text messages and emails from Australia, Canada, and the USA enquiring about job prospects. That’s why six young footballers have left Islandeady for foreign shores. Other clubs around the country have the same problem.

The article notes that live register figures have begun to decline from the 12,000 figure of jobless in Mayo in September 2009, due to the number of people leaving the county. Only 7,000 were unemployed in September 2008.

Economists cite emigration as a major reason why the unemployment figures released today showed a rate of 12.7%; they would be higher were the safety valve of emigration not in effect.
See the entire article:

• Mayo Advertiser: Forced emigration a reality in Mayo – Kenny

Missouri Irish began life as a hardcover but is now available as an audiobook from IrishRoots.com.

It looks particularly interesting as the history begins in 1770; eighteenth-century Irish immigration to the US is a story too infrequently told. Here are the notes from the table of contents:

Part One
1770 – 1804. Irish Settlers in the Spanish Regime…
Indian Mounds and Tara Hills.
Immigration…Religious Ties and Conflicts…
West vs. East …
The First Irish-American Settlement in the Bois Brule Bottom.

Part Two
1804 – 1900. The First Irish Americans
Pioneer Journalists … Mexican War … Steamboat Irish … Indian War
…The Famine Irish … Murphy’s Wagon replaced by the
Railroad … Slavery … Civil War Irish.

Part Three
Irish Immigration and Distribution
Irish Settlements in Missouri … City vs. Farm .. Population by County
… Irish Settlements …O’Fallon Missouri … Donnybrook …
Moving on from Missouri

Part Four
The Irish in the Cities.
Saint Louis… Brady & McKnight … O’Connor… Mullanphy ..
The Kerry Patch … Kansas City…. First Newspaper …
Father Bernard Donnelly … The first Irish in Kansas City …
The History of the St. Patricks Day Parade …
The Shamrock Society … A.O.H. St. Joseph and Buchanan County…
On the overland trail

Part Five
The Irish Wilderness Settlement
Rev. J.J. Hogan … Lifestyle … Chillicothe … Brookfield … Ripley
and Oregon Counties … Iron Mountain Railroad.

Part Six
My Irish American Heritage.
The Sullivans, Donahues, Buckleys, Irish American Development.

I hope that this is a trend and we’ll see histories of the Irish in all fifty states of the US!

Visit IrishRoots.com – host Michael O’Loughlin has been working on Irish family history and genealogy since 1978!

Their plight was the focus of a written question in the Dail, which has appeared on KildareStreet.com. The Q and A is below. In it, Minister Martin notes that Irish Abroad Unit officials have met with representatives of the community, and expresses and openness to funding projects as part of the normal emigrant support funding round.

This kind of outreach is yet another sign of the Irish government’s innovative commitment to strengthening and developing its relationship with the Irish diaspora. How many countries are working to re-establish relationships like this one between Ireland and this small community, which was  so cruelly severed four centuries ago?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

Question 674: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he has assisted the Redleg people of Irish slave decent in Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada and other Caribbean states; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1475/10]

Micheál Martin (Minister, Department of Foreign Affairs; Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The Irish Abroad Unit within my Department maintains a keen interest in all aspects of the Irish experience of emigration, both forced and voluntary, and has active programmes aimed at strengthening our links with Irish communities overseas; including in the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, South Africa, Europe and Asia.

While we have no active programme in the Caribbean at present, officials from the Irish Abroad Unit have held a number of exploratory meetings since 2008 with representatives of the descendents of those Irish people who were deported by Oliver Cromwell to Barbados in the 17th Century. During these discussions, the group were encouraged to maintain contact with the Government and to reflect further on the most appropriate way to recognise this unique community within the Irish Diaspora.

Representatives of the community are welcome to submit an application for funding under the Emigrant Support Programme when the 2010 grant round is launched in March by my Department.

It was, presumably, a recent TG4 programme  that highlighted the plight of this deprived outpost of the Irish diaspora and prompted Mr Varadkar’s question. The Irish Times also has a great article on this community.

Related websites:

• Moondance Productions: To Hell or Barbados
• Irish Times: Remnants of an indentured people
• Barbados Underground: Red Legs in Barbados
• To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland by Sean Callaghan
• Damien Dempsey: To Hell or Barbados