IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v14y2009i2p111-116.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Migration and Recession: Polish Migrants in Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland

Author

Listed:
  • Torben Krings
  • Alicja Bobek
  • Elaine Moriarty
  • Justyna Salamonska
  • James Wickham

Abstract

In this paper we explore the impact of the current economic downturn on Polish migrants in the Irish labour market. Ireland appears to be well suited to study the impact of the recession on intra-European migration. The country has not only experienced large-scale inward migration from the new EU Member states (NMS) in recent years, but has also been severely hit by a recession. At times of an economic crisis, questions have begun to be asked about the future intentions of migrants. By drawing on an ongoing Qualitative Panel Study on the experience of Polish migrants in the Irish labour market, we argue that simplistic assumptions about migrants leaving the country ‘when times are getting tough’ are misplaced. No doubt some NMS migrants will leave because of the worsening economic situation and new opportunities elsewhere. As East-West migration has adopted a more temporary and circular character facilitated by a free movement regime, NMS migrants have the opportunity to move on elsewhere at times of a downturn. At the same time, many Polish migrants are ‘here to stay’, for the moment at least. This is for at least three reasons. A clear majority of NMS migrants remains in employment, in spite of the downturn. Furthermore, even if migrants should lose their jobs, welfare state arrangements in the host country offer some protection against destitution. Moreover, the decision to migrate, and consequently to stay or move on, is not just reached on the basis of economic considerations alone. Particularly social networks are of importance in sustaining the migration process relatively independent from short-term economic change, including an economic downturn.

Suggested Citation

  • Torben Krings & Alicja Bobek & Elaine Moriarty & Justyna Salamonska & James Wickham, 2009. "Migration and Recession: Polish Migrants in Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 14(2), pages 111-116, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:14:y:2009:i:2:p:111-116
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.1927
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.1927
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5153/sro.1927?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barrett, Alan & Kearney, Ide & Goggin, Jean, 2009. "Quarterly Economic Commentary, Spring 2009," Forecasting Report, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number QEC20091, June.
    2. Mark Boyle, 2006. "Culture in the Rise of Tiger Economies: Scottish Expatriates in Dublin and the ‘Creative Class’ Thesis," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 403-426, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. James Wickham, 2011. "After the party's over: The Irish employment model and the paradoxes of non-learning," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp367, IIIS.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kearney, Ide, 2012. "Measuring Fiscal Stance," Quarterly Economic Commentary: Special Articles, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), vol. 2012(3-Autumn).
    2. Wentao Yu & Xiaolan Tan, 2022. "The creative class in China: Heterogeneity and its regional determinants," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3466-3478, December.
    3. Ronny Correa-Quezada & José Álvarez-García & María De la Cruz Del Río-Rama & Claudia Patricia Maldonado-Erazo, 2018. "Role of Creative Industries as a Regional Growth Factor," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-14, May.
    4. Michaela Trippl & Gunther Maier, 2011. "Knowledge Spillover Agents and Regional Development," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Peter Nijkamp & Iulia Siedschlag (ed.), Innovation, Growth and Competitiveness, chapter 0, pages 91-111, Springer.
    5. Maier, Gunther & Kurka, Bernhard & Trippl, Michaela, 2007. "Knowledge Spillover Agents and Regional Development: Spatial Distribution and Mobility of Star Scientists," Papers DYNREG17, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    6. Mark Lorenzen & Kristina Vaarst Andersen, 2009. "Centrality and Creativity: Does Richard Florida's Creative Class Offer New Insights into Urban Hierarchy?," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 85(4), pages 363-390, October.
    7. repec:esr:chaptr:jacb200961 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Amitrajeet A. Batabyal & Peter Nijkamp, 2022. "Interregional Competition for Mobile Creative Capital with and Without Physical Capital Mobility," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 45(1), pages 58-73, January.
    9. H.S. Geyer, 2011. "Creativity, Wellbeing and Urban Sustainability: Areas in Which the North and the South Can Learn from Each Other," Chapters, in: H. S. Geyer (ed.), International Handbook of Urban Policy, Volume 3, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Callan, Tim & Keane, Claire & Walsh, John R., 2009. "Tax Reform: Selected Issues," Papers BP2010/1, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    11. Mark Lorenzen & Kristina Vaarst Andersen, 2007. "The Geography of the European Creative Class A Rank-Size Analysis," DRUID Working Papers 07-17, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    12. Peadar Kirby, Director, Institute for the Study of Knowledge in Society and Professor of International Politics and Public Policy, University of Limerick and Pádraig Carmody, Lecturer in Geography and, 2009. "Moving beyond the Legacies of the Celtic Tiger," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp300, IIIS.
    13. Duffy, David & Durkan, Joe & Casey, Eddie, 2012. "Quarterly Economic Commentary, Autumn 2012," Forecasting Report, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number QECQEC2012AUT, June.
    14. Yasuyuki Motoyama & Sameeksha Desai, 2022. "Stickiness of entrepreneurs: an exploratory study of migration in two mid-sized US cities," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 2139-2155, April.
    15. Renia Ehrenfeucht & Marla Nelson, 2018. "Moving to a shrinking city? Some suggestive observations on why college-educated professionals came to New Orleans and why they stayed," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(12), pages 2762-2779, September.
    16. Sarkhel, Prasenjit, 2015. "Flood risk, land use and private participation in embankment maintenance in Indian Sundarbans," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 272-284.
    17. Bergin, Adele & Conefrey, Thomas & FitzGerald, John & Kearney, Ide, 2010. "Recovery Scenarios for Ireland: An Update," Forecasting Report, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number jacb201051, June.
    18. H. S. Geyer (ed.), 2011. "International Handbook of Urban Policy, Volume 3," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12831.
    19. Bjørn Asheim & Høgni Kalsø Hansen, 2009. "Knowledge Bases, Talents, and Contexts: On the Usefulness of the Creative Class Approach in Sweden," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 85(4), pages 425-442, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:14:y:2009:i:2:p:111-116. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.