The sense of being on the verges of society is also shared by some who have been here all their lives. Helen, who is Australian and came to live in Co Roscommon 20 years ago, says: "One time a local man said it was great to see foreigners refurbishing ruined houses that were empty and lonesome, and raising families in them. But he added that it will be crunch time when the boys grow up and want to marry local Catholic girls. That stuck in my mind: we will never be part of the community completely. I've heard about somebody from Leitrim being referred to as a blow-in - having come a few miles down the road. So what hope is there for us!"
Maybe Helen is hoping for the wrong kind of belonging. I sometimes wonder if, for Irish people born and bred, belonging is as much of an illusion as it is for the blow-ins. A Swiss-born woman, Yvonne Sidler, says in the book: "At first people seem to be very nice, curious, generous. But I read in the newspapers about refugees looking for asylum, that the Irish don't like it. They stop them at the points of entry and want to send them back. On the other hand, for centuries, the Irish went to other countries to work. You can't discuss this. They don't like to talk about serious things. Everything always has to be nice. If you don't agree with them, they don't want to know. I've learned to keep my mouth shut sometimes about certain issues."
I think a lot of "Irish" people feel the same way. After all, it isn't that long since artists who wrote openly about sex were banned. Women who had sex before marriage and became pregnant were forced to give up their babies or face isolation. Until the 1960s, people who didn't fit in were put into psychiatric hospitals. Others have found that being "successful" is a sure route to being slagged off.
All of that is changing - and fast. Ireland is part of a global culture now in a world where "belonging" tends to mean that the shopping mall at the airport in LA looks just like the one in Madrid, and the episode of Friends they're showing on Network 2 is the same one you saw in Boston six months ago. The world is full of gypsies, none of us quite sure where we belong.
When you consider that Ireland has had only a few years to deal with the culture shock of an extraordinary influx of newcomers, we're not doing too badly. Problem is, it's not the Irish living here who remember the signs "no Irish need apply". Those who stayed are used to being around others who think and act like they do in an unchallenging, womb-like environment. So becoming a truly inclusive multi-cultural society will take time. And as the British, French and German experience has shown - no culture is inherently good at assimilating outsiders. And the Irish are probably better than most.
Where the Grass is Greener: Voices of Immigrant Women in Ireland, edited by Susan Knight, is published by Oaktree Press at the end of the month, price £14.95. On Thursday, May 24th, some of the women will be read- ing their contributions at Waterstone's in Dawson Street, Dublin, at 6.15 p.m.