‘The lack of security in housing is very difficult’

Tibor Szabo still has the euro coin the Aircoach driver gave him as change the night he arrived in Dublin. He and his girlfriend, both nurses from Hungary, had arrived in Ireland to embark on a new life in a country they knew very little about.

After eight years of working two jobs as a nurse to make ends meet, Szabo felt he had reached a dead end in his career in Hungary. “I couldn’t see any escape from it. I was working in an intensive care unit and on a home-care team. If I had stayed I might have achieved things professionally but in terms of finances it was too difficult.

“A registered nurse working in ICU would earn about €450-€550 per month. The cost of living is less in Hungary than here. However, it was still not enough to live on.”

He initially decided to move away from nursing but, after unsuccessfully applying for a job as an air steward, he realised that his calling remained in the medical profession. His mother had worked as a nurse throughout his childhood, and his brother was a pharmacist.

“I think the work suits me because I have an aptitude towards helping people in trouble. I find it easy just to listen to them. I’m a tiny bit shy and don’t really want to open up to many people, so I just let them talk.”

He was already interested in learning English, and had spent years taking classes to improve his language skills. He also did a course in translating biology terms from Hungarian to English. Moving to an English-speaking country felt like the best way to develop his career as a nurse abroad.

“It was 2006 and Ireland was doing quite well already. I did research from home and from the library and thought, This country might work.”

Recruitment agencies

It took him a year to complete the complicated registration process that would enable him to work as a nurse in Ireland. Once the registration was confirmed, he sent his CV to a couple of recruitment agencies in Dublin and soon after received word that a new private hospital in Dublin called the Beacon wanted to interview him. In April 2008 he and his girlfriend flew to Dublin, where he would begin his new job as a nurse in the Beacon’s oncology unit.

“The hospital paid for two weeks accommodation when we arrived, which was very nice as we had time to find somewhere to live.”

The couple spent their first few months living in a small studio in Rathmines.

“I believe anybody who has ever lived in Dublin has lived in Rathmines at some point; everyone knows it. We could use the Luas to get to work, but the quality of the studio wasn’t the best.”

His girlfriend, Aniko, began taking English lessons to improve her language skills before applying for work. Meanwhile, he focused on settling into his new job.

“Working in the Beacon was challenging in the beginning. It was a very busy place with high expectations from consultants and colleagues.”

He also discovered that his new colleagues were far more cosmopolitan than the people he had worked with back home.

"I remember the first month when I joined the Beacon, there were nurses from around the world – India, the Philippines, Australia, the UK, Ireland, obviously – all working with me.

“In Hungary it’s very difficult to see other nationalities because it is quite a strict and closed community. But I love meeting people from around the world and hearing about their memories from their homes and from when they were young. They treated me as an equal. I didn’t feel less in any way.”

In April 2010 the couple returned home to get married, and a few months later their son David was born. Three years later another son, Akos, arrived on the scene. The couple wanted to move to a larger home with their sons, but Dublin’s rising rents combined with the costs of children meant they had to move to a smaller, cheaper apartment.

Szabo is happy with the family's home in Sandyford, which is 10 minutes from both the seaside and the mountains. However, he struggles with the insecurity of the rental market and the knowledge that his family may have to move again soon.

“The lack of security in housing here when you don’t own your own property is very difficult. I’m really struggling to find a place where I can stay forever, providing I’m able to work and pay the mortgage.”

He still encounters a language barrier in his daily life. “Anyone who has lived abroad in a different language environment knows that it’s not the same. However confident you are, it’s not your mother tongue. It’s not the way you’ve expressed yourself for 30-40 years.”

The right decision

Despite the challenges of finding a more permanent home and the loneliness the couple often feel living so far from friends and family in Hungary, Szabo says they have made the right decision raising their sons in Ireland. They both now work as nurses at the Beacon Hospital, and David is attending a local school.

“The friends we’ve made since 2008 are different from friends back home that we’d had for 30 years. So, yes, we do have friends here, we have relationships with the neighbours, but it’s still lonely.

“My main reason for staying here is for the future of my kids. I can give them a different future here which is more open to opportunities. When you have kids your focus shifts towards something completely different from what you did before. For me and my wife, we felt we needed to be here, work here and stay here for our sons.

“It is challenging to live anywhere in the world with two small kids but Ireland gives me more security in my personal life and more opportunities in my career.”

We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past five years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com. @newtotheparish