Stereotype of older emigrant largely true

The stereotype of the typical Irish emigrant in the UK as a labourer or, for a woman, a nurse, is largely true, according to research presented at the conference. Irish men in Britain are over-represented in the construction trades, pub management and as waiters, Dr Brendan Halpin of the University of Essex said. They are under-represented in computer programming, some areas of management and as sales assistants.

Irish women are concentrated in nursing and other health jobs, engineering, architecture and pub management. They are less likely than British women to work in teaching, management, the civil service and as sales assistants or checkout operators.

Dr Halpin has found that whereas older Irish emigrants were under-qualified relative to their British peers, those who left more recently are more highly educated than the general British population.

Thus, less than 4 per cent of Irish emigrants aged over 40 hold degrees, half the rate for the UK population. But for those in the 23-30 age group, almost one in four holds a degree, substantially above the British level of 14 per cent.

Almost half of older emigrants had no qualifications, but this figure dropped to 13 per cent for 23to 30-year-olds.

In total almost 550,000 people born in the Republic are living in the UK, or about 1 per cent of the population.

In 1991 the total number of Irish-born people living in Britain, Canada, Australia and the US was 1.143 million.