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EU Enlargement and Ireland's Labour Market

Author

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  • Barrett, Alan

    (ESRI, Dublin)

Abstract

Ireland, along with Sweden and the UK, allowed full access to its labour market to the citizens of the accession countries when the EU enlarged in May 2004. Given the limited number of countries that opened up and the rapid pace of economic growth in Ireland around 2004, a significant inflow was expected. However, the rate of inflow exceeded all expectations. Based on census information, the number of EU10 nationals living in Ireland grew from around 10,000 in 2002 to 120,000 in 2006. Data on inflows suggests that this number could have reached 200,000 by 2008 or 4.5 percent of the population. The EU10 immigrants have very high employment rates and also have levels of education that are comparable to the native labour force in Ireland. However, they appear to earn considerably less than the native labour force and also to be in lower grade occupations. They have impacted positively on the Irish economy in terms of GNP growth. This is because wages grew more slowing in Ireland than would otherwise have been the case as a result of the labour supply increase brought about by this immigration flow.

Suggested Citation

  • Barrett, Alan, 2009. "EU Enlargement and Ireland's Labour Market," IZA Discussion Papers 4260, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4260
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Peter Huber & Gabriele Tondl, 2012. "Migration and regional convergence in the European Union," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 39(4), pages 439-460, November.
    2. Kahanec, Martin, 2012. "Skilled Labor Flows: Lessons from the European Union," IZA Research Reports 49, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Alan Barrett & Adele Bergin & Elish Kelly & Seamus McGuinness, 2016. "Ireland’s Recession and the Immigrant-Native Earnings Gap," Springer Books, in: Martin Kahanec & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), Labor Migration, EU Enlargement, and the Great Recession, pages 103-122, Springer.
    4. Peter Huber & Klaus Nowotny & Julia Bock-Schappelwein, 2010. "Qualification Structure, Over- and Under-qualification of the Foreign Born in Austria and the EU," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 41226, April.
    5. Peter Huber & Julia Bock-Schappelwein, 2013. "The Impact of Migration Policy on Migrants’ Education Structure: Evidence from Austrian Policy Reform," DANUBE: Law and Economics Review, European Association Comenius - EACO, issue 1, pages 1-21, March.
    6. LSE Enterprise,, 2011. "Study on the impact of the single market on cohesion: implications for cohesion policy, growth and competitiveness," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 42840, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Hazans, Mihails & Philips, Kaia, 2011. "The Post-Enlargement Migration Experience in the Baltic Labor Markets," IZA Discussion Papers 5878, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Åslund, Olof & Engdahl, Mattias, 2013. "Open borders, transport links and local labor markets," Working Paper Series 2013:11, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ireland; EU new member states; EU enlargement; immigration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration

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