When I moved to Sydney on a working holiday visa more than 20 years ago, I had enough traveller’s cheques to pay for a week at a hostel in the edgy King’s Cross suburb. And I had two backup plans. In my pocket was a changeable return airline ticket home. In my head was the name of a rural town five hours away where my mother’s childhood friend lived.
In a disconnected world, I, like most backpackers in that era, was one wrong move, one robbed handbag or one broken limb away from a crisis. So, when I saw that the Government’s new diaspora strategy, released in recent weeks, contained a commitment to ensure Irish emigrants would be supported on arrival in a new country and people would get better information before they left Ireland, it resonated.
Moving country, by its nature, can leave people vulnerable. The key destinations may have shifted from generations past, with young people more likely to join their friend in Perth or Dubai than their auntie in Birmingham or Boston. Push factors have also changed from escaping poverty and social exclusion to seeking a better quality of life or career opportunities. And for many, the likelihood of eventually returning to live in Ireland is much higher (a third of Irish living abroad intend to one day return to Ireland, rising to more than half among younger cohorts, according to an online survey of 10,000 diaspora members for the strategy).
But it seems the next generation is also prone to vulnerability, from not knowing whom to call in a crisis or being ill-prepared for visa renewal to isolation and mental health issues.
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The top two ways to support the next generation, according to the Irish diaspora survey, are: better access to existing Irish diaspora organisations and networks abroad; and better access to information before emigrants leave Ireland.
The strategy’s goals include to further develop supports on the practical realities of moving to key destinations. Irish people moving abroad should not assume Australia is simply “Ireland in the sun”, Minister of State for the Diaspora Neale Richmond tells The Irish Times. “Australia is a long, long way. And if you get the phone call that a family member has passed away, what’s your plan for that? How do you avoid becoming illegal? That’s something people don’t consider.”
As rockets rained on Dubai in March after the war in Iran broke out, many of the 14,000 Irish there, including teachers, were trying to navigate the new reality and find out their rights. “All these really practical things can have a detrimental effect. It is leaving a new cohort extremely vulnerable, and they find themselves in trouble,” says Richmond.
Although the younger generation of emigrants leaving Ireland is hyper-connected to home and the world, in some ways the smartphone era can be more isolating, with fewer opportunities for in-person interactions. Irish emigrants living in a new country may be remote working, have no peer or family groups to fall back on and can find it hard to quickly tap into a network, Richmond says. “And they do find themselves isolated quite quickly.”
That is why part of the strategy is to connect newly-arrived Irish to local community organisations using the diaspora directory and to build networks with embassies.
“Irish people have two degrees of separation, where the rest of the world have six degrees of separation. If you are in a certain country a long way from home, that level of separation can make you very vulnerable, and certainly mental-health incidents, post-Covid, is a big factor,” Richmond says.
Supporting new emigrants is one of 23 commitments contained in Ireland’s Diaspora Strategy 2026-2030. Others include developing better online information (via the Global Irish Hub), , to nurturing a sense of belonging and identity, initiatives that reduce isolation such as cultural activities, sports clubs and Irish language circles and facilitating the transition for people moving back to Ireland.
Read more coverage of Ireland’s Diaspora Strategy 2026-2030 below.
- The ‘Irish emigrant’ is no longer a simple concept. Meet the new diaspora
- Irish flag ‘hijacked’ in world with ‘very toxic form of nationalism’, says former WHO executive
- A third of Irish abroad intend to come home but cost of living is ‘a big issue’
Are you Irish and living in the Middle East? How has life changed since the war in Iran started? Get in touch.abroad@irishtimes.com.
