IRELAND BENEFITED by getting the cream of Polish migrants in recent years, according to new research published by Trinity College Dublin.
The research, titled Migrant Careers and Aspirations, traced the trajectories of a group of Polish nationals working in Ireland, and also found the standards required of Irish workers increased as a result of migration.
Prof Marek Okolski, Centre of Migration Research, Warsaw, examined mass migration from Poland’s perspective. He found Ireland got the best Polish migrants, as those who moved to Ireland and the UK had higher educational attainments than Polish migrants to other European countries.
The arrival of more than 300,000 Polish nationals to Ireland over the last few years meant labour demands could be met easily, according to TCD’s Prof James Wickham. As a result, Irish workers had to upgrade skills, he said, adding: “There is now a more skilled, more flexible labour force than there used to be.”
The research found migrants were more affected by rising unemployment than Irish nationals, with migrants from new EU member states worst hit.
Irish workers still have a long way to go in competing with other European workers, as most Irish people only have one language, Prof Wickham said. Monolingualism is a “massive problem, and really shows the failure of the Irish educational system. Polish people speak Polish and English, whereas most Irish people only speak English,” he said.
“Everyone in Europe has English now, so it’s no advantage. Irish people are going to need another major language to compete with their European counterparts.”
The most surprising thing about the research according to Prof Wickham was “the extent to which people’s experience of Ireland was a positive one, even though most migrants got paid less than the equivalent qualified Irish person”.
“They found the Irish workplace more informal, employers fairer and managers less authoritarian than in Poland,” he said.
Ireland’s open labour market policy following the 2004 enlargement of the European Union transformed immigration from Poland, according to the research.