Immigration into the Republic of Ireland: a bibliography of recent research

Abstract

Until relatively recently, research on migration to the Republic of Ireland has been limited to a handful of texts. As immigration into Ireland has increased over the last decade, so has the volume of published research exploring this phenomenon, with a significant increase in the number of published research reports, policy studies and submissions, conference proceedings, monographs, academic papers, book chapters and theses. However the piecemeal and often ad hoc nature of the growth of this bibliography presents specific problems for both researchers and participants. This paper draws together a comprehensive (though not exhaustive) bibliography of research into immigration in Ireland. The bibliography is organised into a typology of research on migration into Ireland by considering the existing corpus of work under nine headings. The paper concludes by highlighting the potential contribution that human geography can offer to our understandings of the processes and dimensions of migration to twenty-first century Ireland.

Keywords:

• Ireland
• immigration
• research
• bibliography
• references

Introduction

The trajectory of the Republic of Ireland's1 migration profile is, by now, a familiar story. Over the past decade, years of emigration and exile have been supplanted by sustained immigration of a multiplicity of different groups including returning Irish emigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and labour migrants. In tandem with this change in the numbers of people entering and living in the Ireland there has been a marked rise in the publication of research exploring this phenomenon. Research on immigration into the state was, until the recent past, extremely limited, largely because immigration was itself extremely limited and greatly overshadowed by out-migration. In the last decade interest in immigration into Ireland has exploded through the production of an enormous range of research reports, policy studies and submissions, conference proceedings, monographs, academic papers, book chapters and theses. Furthermore the absence (up until very recently) of an established research profile, community of researchers or dedicated research centres exploring immigration into Ireland has meant that, while a research bibliography has been built up (as this paper attests) it has been in a piecemeal and ad hoc fashion.2 This has led to specific problems for the producers of, participants in and consumers of research on migration into Ireland.

For researchers, while the instant electronic availability of some material is welcome, the relative inaccessibility of other material can prove frustrating. Feedback from the NGO sector on the emerging body of work on immigration into Ireland has characterised it as ‘repetitive’ (see Cotter 2004). At the same time the speed at which new materials are added to the corpus of work on migration into Ireland can prove daunting.3 Other problems in the research landscape on migration into Ireland also figure. In a relatively short period of time members of migrant communities have reported ‘research fatigue’ from constantly being approached by researchers to participate in research (see Cotter 2004).

Clearly the problems facing the producers and consumers of, and the participants in research on migration into Ireland overlap and are interlinked. We would argue that these can be traced back to the ad hoc and piecemeal development of research in this field. By collating research on immigration into Ireland this paper aims to alleviate some of these problems. An extensive bibliography will assist researchers (and especially an emerging new generation of researchers) gather together existing resources and research materials on immigration. This, in turn, will help them define and identify key lacunae in the research landscape. It is hoped that, by doing this, there will be less duplication and repetition in research projects and fewer (or at least more targeted) demands and requests placed on migrant communities to participate in research projects. Thus this paper represents an attempt to collate this research into one manageable source. In a similar vein to Lentin and McVeigh's and Lentin's (2006b) e-reader on racism in Ireland, the paper is partly a bibliography, partly a review and partly a resource collection. In addition, by highlighting the contribution by Irish geographers we hope to illustrate the potential that a geographic perspective might offer to any understandings of the processes and dimensions of migration to twenty-first century Ireland.

The paper begins with a brief discussion on Ireland's modern migration history. It is argued that the hegemonic narrative that emigration from a mono-ethnic society has been replaced by immigration into a rapidly changing, multi-ethnic society is, in certain respects, misleading. Ireland has been a country of immigration before. It has also always had a multi-ethnic population and it has always had an immigrant population (albeit a small one that, in the words of the Government of Ireland [1955], ‘does not constitute a demographic feature of any significance’). For these reasons it is important to place recent developments surrounding Ireland's migration profile into their historical context. It is important to remember this background context when considering recent changes in Ireland's experience. The paper then goes on to outline a typology of research on migration into Ireland by considering the existing corpus of research under nine headings.

In developing a typology and catalogue of published work, we acknowledge the work of Cotter (2004), who has provided the first detailed guide to research in this field. The bibliography (below) has been compiled for this paper. While it is not claimed to be exhaustive, it is at least comprehensive.4 An initial decision was made not to include references to research on Irish emigrants and the Irish diaspora. This is not because we see these communities as qualitatively different to, or distinct from, immigrant communities in Ireland. In fact tracing the connections and similarities between these groups is important towards furthering our understandings of Ireland's place in twenty-first century global movements of people. Instead the decision not to include references to research on Irish emigration was taken because of the range and volume of material that would by necessity be included. Such a bibliography is work for another day. As far as possible'grey' literature (e.g. material produced by NGOs) has been included but unpublished conference papers, dissertations (with one or two exceptions) and individual book chapters have in general been omitted.

Ireland's recent migration history

Ireland's historical demographic and migration profile can fairly be described as unique, at least in European terms. From the Famine of the late 1840s, the population of Ireland, especially in the part of the country which subsequently became an independent state in 1922, declined continuously for a period of more than a century, until the late 1950s. Changes in economic, social and cultural norms after the Famine led to delayed marriages and high rates of non-marriage, and importantly the highest and most sustained per capita rates of emigration in Europe ensured that the modest natural increase in the population which even this rate of reproduction would have provided was constantly outpaced by new departures. High rates of emigration consistently outstripped natural increase over the first half of the twentieth century. Over this period immigration into Ireland was close to non-existent. Apart from small numbers of labour migrants and a limited number of cases of family reunification for foreign nationals, the other possible source of migrants in the decades after the Second World War was through refugee resettlement schemes.

In the more economically open and optimistic 1960s and 1970s, increased job creation and an improved economic climate (culminating in Ireland's entry into the European Economic Community in 1973) produced a steady decline in emigration, resulting in net in-migration for the first time in the state's 50-year history. Over 1961 to 1981 the population of Ireland grew by an astonishing 22 per cent (MacEinri 2001b). Much of this was accounted for by the high number of returning Irish emigrants and their children. However the generation born in those years and the children of different groups of migrants who moved to Ireland in the 1970s (see below) found themselves entering a rapidly contracting labour market in the late 1980s. Economic recession and the resultant rise in unemployment saw the resumption of high emigration rates over the course of the 1980s. More than 70,600, or 2 per cent of the entire population, left in 1988/89 alone.

The 1996 Census can be taken as marking the beginning of a modern period of net immigration. It showed a country which was still largely ethnically homogenous (Mac Éinrí and Walley 2003). The emergence of the 1990s Celtic Tiger economic boom saw growth in employment and the economy and inward multinational investment (albeit concentrated primarily in the IT and pharmaceutical sectors). That a trickle of incoming migrants turned into a steady stream is important. However, equally important is an appreciation of the composition of these streams of immigrants. A significant proportion of in-migrants were returning Irish migrants. The intercensal period data for 2000–2005 shows that returning Irish migrants comprised approximately 40 per cent of the total number of immigrants. In 2005, for example, 27 per cent of those counted as in-migrants were not foreign migrants.5 Of course over this same time period flows of other migrants have also increased.

During the mid to late 1990s the numbers of people claiming asylum in Ireland grew from a handful to over 7000 per annum in 1999 (Galvin 1999). Although people had sought asylum in Ireland before the 1990s,6 this flow of asylum seekers was not part of any organised reception or resettlement programmes (or ‘programme refugees). The numbers seeking asylum continued to rise to around 10,000 p.a. (10,938 in 2000, 10,375 in 2001) peaking to 11,634 in 2002 before dropping to 7,900 in 2003, and 4,304 in 2005 (Ruhs 2004; Coakley and Mac Éinrí 2007b).

However, raw totals like these obscure a series of temporal and spatial variations in asylum claims in Ireland. For most of the late 1990s the majority of these asylum seekers came from Africa and, until 1999, 54 per cent of the asylum seeker population came from three countries: Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Algeria (Faughnan and Woods 2000). In 1999 the balance shifted when the largest group of asylum applicants came from Romania (in 1999 Ireland was receiving one-quarter of all asylum applications by Romanians in Europe) (ibid.). In 2002, 35 per cent of all applicants were Nigerian with 14.4 per cent Romanian nationals (Ruhs 2004). From 2000 to the end of 2005, a total of 6814 persons were granted full refugee status. The largest communities were again Nigerian and Romanian. This concentration of asylum seekers from one or two countries is a typical pattern in'new' host countries like Ireland (Faughnan and Woods 2000).

The rise and rise of labour migration

Prior to the 1990s, few immigrants came to Ireland who were of neither Irish nor British background. Non-EU immigration, aside from professionals in the multinational sector, was insignificant. Apart from the very modest inward migration of refugees already discussed, substantial immigration from outside the English-speaking world is very recent and the sharp and sustained growth in labour in-migration only dates from the late 1990s. This rise in immigration was partly from other EU countries but there was a significant increase in non-EU immigrants, including workers on short-term work permits, asylum seekers and students. The result has been that in the period 1995 to 2004, 486,300 people moved to Ireland whilst 263,800 people emigrated, resulting in net immigration of 222,500.

EU migrants and non-EEA work permit holders

Prior to May 2004, all non-EU citizens required work permits to work in Ireland. These permits were issued through two different mechanisms: the Working Visa/Work Authorisation (WV/WA) programme administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Work Permits scheme administered by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. These schemes, while complementary, cater for people from different places with differing skills. The WV/WA programme targets highly skilled, well-educated workers needed for the service and high-skilled manufacturing sectors. The Work Permits scheme targets lower skilled workers, from outside the European Economic Area (EU, plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and, under a separate agreement, Switzerland), needed for catering, agriculture, industry, nursing, and domestic home help. Prior to 1998 work permit applications were below 5000 per year. From then on numbers of applicants rose steadily until 2003, when they reached a peak of 47,551.

With accession to the EU by the ten new states from May 2004 the work permits scheme was altered. On the one hand the Government decided to allow migrant workers from the new member states unrestricted access to the Irish labour market, although, following the UK example, it introduced restrictions on access to welfare benefits by imposing an ‘habitual residence’ rule before migrants could claim the full range of welfare benefits. On the other hand, it moved to restrict immigration from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), by limiting the categories of work for which it was possible to apply for a work permit. The result was a decline in non-EEA workers. The 2004 figure was 34,067 (including 23,346 renewals), a drop of 28 per cent on 2003, and 27,136 for 2005 (including 18,970 renewals). The number of work permits issued has fallen further since that time. These figures do not include WV/WA permits.

Ireland was one of only three of the ‘old’ EU15 member states (the others being Britain and Sweden) which imposed no transitional arrangements concerning the admission to the labour market of people from the accession states. Sweden experienced a very modest inward migration of 2100 workers in the six months May–November 2004 (Statistics Office Sweden 2004). For the period 1 May 2004–30 September 2005, 293,000 (annualised to 207,000) workers from the new accession states moved to the UK (Home Office 2005). In Ireland, 133,258 accession workers obtained PPSNs (personal public service numbers) in the same period (Fitzgerald 2006), an annualised figure of more than 94,000. Moreover, these statistics do not include persons who migrated to Ireland from outside the EU with work permits, or work visas/authorisations, international students, workers and individuals from the other 14 ‘old’ EU member states, and the non-economically active spouses and families of any of these categories of migrants. However it should be noted that these figures represent ‘flows’, not ‘stocks’. Relatively little is known about how many people come for a short period and leave again. In particular, the main data source available for new EU accession countries in intercensal periods is the issuing of PPSNs. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many Poles, for instance, register and work for a few months before returning home. They are somewhat similar to their Irish equivalents in the USA in the 1980s; that is, sometimes undocumented people with a good education who chose unskilled or semi-skilled work before returning to Ireland. It also appears that some migrants who obtained PPSNs never took up work in Ireland at all.

Ireland has now reformed its labour migration legislation (Employment Permits Act 2006) and has introduced a ‘green card’ system for persons earning over [euro]60,000 per annum or who have certain skills and qualifications considered to be in short supply. The ‘green card’ does not, unlike its US counterpart, offer permanent residence, but it does offer the possibility of residence for an initial period of two years, renewable indefinitely, with immediate family reunification. The ‘ordinary’ work permit system is largely unchanged. It remains to be seen if further reforms will be introduced such as quotas or points systems similar to those operated in the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Meanwhile, with the UK, Ireland chose not to open its labour market to Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU in January 2007.

The 2006 Census recorded 419,733 persons of a nationality other than Irish, or just over 10 per cent of the population (CSO 2007). Forecasts (CSO 2004, ESG 2004, EGFSN 2007) suggest that Ireland will continue to need substantial ongoing immigration for at least another decade if present rates of economic growth are to be sustained. It is estimated by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) that Ireland requires net in-migration of approximately 30,000 migrants per annum over the period 2002–2006, and between 20,000 and 30,000 per annum in the years 2006–2011 (CSO 2004).

The spatial distribution of migrants: new patterns?

A feature of particular note in recent immigration to Ireland lies in its pattern of spatial distribution. Figure 1 shows the spatial distribution of migrants in Ireland (based upon the Small Area Population Statistics [SAPS] published by the CSO). This map reveals some interesting patterns and distributions; however any authoritative commentary on these patterns and distributions would require more detailed data than that which is to hand. Parts of inner city Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick show strong concentrations of migrants and their families (SAPS, Census 2006), corresponding to classic settlement patterns in other countries and at other times. Traditionally migration to and from Europe has tended to be from rural and less developed regions to core areas,7 whether or not the core was outside the migrant's own jurisdiction (e.g. from underdeveloped regions of Western Ireland to industrial Britain). Such periphery–core movements constituted one of the two main strands of European migration in the post-War World II period (the other being movement from former colonies to ‘mother countries’, itself a reversal of an historical pattern of dominant European out-migration).

Figure 1.  Per cent of foreign nationals in general population by DED, 2006.

Source: CSO Small Area Population Statistics, 2006.

Over the past two decades new patterns of international migration into Europe have emerged. These hold at least three key features in common. The first is that the former emigration zones of ‘peripheral’ Western Europe are now zones of in-migration. A second feature of this new trend is that such movements are made up of three dominant flows: south–north flows (such as movements from North Africa to the northern Mediterranean rim countries); short-range movements from less developed to more developed contiguous countries (such as the flow of Albanians to Greece); and east–west flows, originating largely but not exclusively in new accession states. Thirdly these flows are spatially dispersed across countries of in-migration rather than concentrated solely in developed core regions of those countries (even though such core regions continue to attract their own strong share of migrants).

As already discussed, the flows of migrants into the Republic of Ireland exemplify the first of these two features. The 2006 SAPS data published by the CSO reveals the extent of the migrant population in small town and rural Ireland (i.e. those areas outside the metropolitan centres of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway). Based on this data it is possible to identify a whole series of mid-sized towns (3000–10,000 and upwards) where the migrant population ranges from 15 to 25 per cent of the total. Towns such as Longford, Roscommon, Ennis, Bandon, Fermoy and many others are experiencing a quiet revolution, even if they do not match the extraordinary case of Gort, with a migrant population of close to 40 per cent, mostly Brazilian. The migrant population of rural Ireland is also high in some regions (including the west and south-west) while it is relatively low in other regions, notably the midlands and south-east.

An explanation for this distribution is suggested by the fact that out-migration from less developed and peripheral regions in Ireland has not, in fact, stopped. This may in part be explained by the tendency for higher skilled jobs to attract well-educated indigenous migrants to locate in larger urban centres, thus perpetuating internal out-migration, leaving a residue of less attractive and less well-paid employment opportunities in more peripheral regions in the tourist, agricultural manufacturing, and catering sectors. Those who take such jobs may include less highly qualified indigenous workers and increasingly (often highly qualified) migrant workers, attracted by high wage differentials between Ireland and their home countries.

This phenomenon has features which are currently temporary but potentially permanent, representing fundamental economic restructuring, partly as a consequence of globalisation. The wage differential which makes it so attractive for new accession state migrants to come and work in Ireland may not last. It may be that (as in Ireland) a pattern of economic convergence with the EU average will gradually raise wage levels and standards of living in the home country, encouraging some migrants to return.8 At the same time, however these processes are leading to a two-tier labour market and the ‘hollowing out’ of the European social model, as a new class of underpaid migrants becomes increasingly dominant in employment sectors which, as wages and terms and conditions of employment deteriorate, are increasingly less likely to revert to indigenous workers. One must also question whether such types of economic activity, based on low wages and low added-value production, could ever constitute a model for economic sustainability in rural Europe. Above all, while migrants may accept second-class status and sacrifice their professional ambitions in certain situations for understandable reasons of economic and social self-improvement, their children may not. If these challenges are ignored now it is possible that the seeds of future social conflict will be sown.

Towards a research typology

Modern immigration to Ireland on a substantial scale dates from the late 1990s and few studies on immigration to Ireland are to be found before this time. To this day there is no comprehensive general publication (with the exception of Fanning 2007), history or survey of immigration into Ireland although a number of more modest sources and surveys exist (Mac Éinrí 2001b). The breakdown by research area is as follows: General studies on immigration; Asylum and refugee studies; Labour migration; Gender and migration; Return migration; Children and migration; Minorities; Racism, xenophobia and discrimination in Ireland; and Citizenship, integration and multiculturalism. While this typology is limited (as all typologies are) and immediately throws up its exceptions, it has been designed with an awareness of the development of research on different ‘streams’ of migrants entering the state (by distinguishing between research on asylum seekers, labour migrants and return migrants). It has also been designed with the significance and specificities of the experiences of migrants – who are often marginalised from hegemonic accounts of international migration – in mind (by identifying research on the gendered dimensions of migration into Ireland and research on children's experiences and understandings of migration into Ireland). In addition the typology has been constructed to reflect the growing interest in a range of interconnected socio-political, cultural and economic questions, processes and issues that can be associated with the mobility of different groups of people over space (such as the experiences and formation of ethnic minority populations, racism and xenophobia and questions surrounding citizenship and integration in Ireland).

General studies on immigration

Although it is over a decade since Ireland's migration profile switched from emigration to immigration there is only one book on immigration to Ireland (Fanning 2007). Researchers, teachers and students must instead rely on book chapters, occasional journal articles and semi-public and ‘grey’ area – reports, commissioned research, policy statements, etc. – publications by the state, semi-state and NGO sectors. Thus an authoritative source or textbook that can map out the changes and developments in migration to Ireland (and that in turn can be recommended to undergraduate audiences) is absent from the current corpus of research on immigration into Ireland.

There are of course a modest number of individual historical studies of different groups of migrants (Hyman 1972, Reynolds 1993, King and Reynolds 1994, Keogh 1998). There are also a number of demographic and economic studies (Courtney 1995, Mac Éinrí 1997, 2005, 2005b, Mac Éinrí 2005c, Mac Éinrí 2006a, Mac Éinrí 2006b, Murphy 1997, Punch and Finneran 1999, Barrett et al. 2000a, 2004b, Walley 2001, Sexton 2003; Kelly 2004, Kline 2004, Quinn and Hughes 2004b, Barrett 2005, Hughes 2005), as well as legal studies (Costello 1994, Finlay 1995, Harvey 1999, International Organisation for Migration 2002, Cubie and Ryan 2004, Kelly 2005, Quinn 2005a).

Many of the researchers included in this typology focus their attention on Ireland's migration policies (Mac Éinrí 2000a, Mac Éinrí 2001b, Mac Éinrí 2001c, Mac Éinrí 2001d, Mac Éinrí 2002, Quinn and Hughes 2004a, 2005, Ruhs 2004, Quinn 2005b, Migrant Rights Centre 2006), or on theoretical insights into the processes underpinning migration into Ireland (Kockel 1991, King and Reynolds 1994, Mac Éinrí 1994, Mac Éinrí 1998, Peillon 2000, Mac Éinrí and Lambkin 2002, Lentin 2006). The representation of immigration in the media has also been explored in a number of publications (King 1998, Mac Éinrí 2001a, Conway 2006) as have the experiences of migrants of different government policies and departments (Cox 1996, Flavin 2000, Mac Éinrí 2000b, Foley et al. 2002, NCCRI and IHSMI 2002, Education Ireland 2004, Yeates 2004, 2006, Integrating Ireland 2005, Paris 2005).

Asylum and refugee studies

This is the largest body of research material carried out on immigration into Ireland so far. However, much of this research material dates from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Indeed only five (of a total of 100) references date from the last three years (i.e. after the EU enlargement and subsequent immigration of Eastern European labour migrants). As many of the cited materials inevitably date from the earliest period of Ireland's immigration history, many of them concerned with urgent and short-term issues such as needs and service analyses to identify various gaps (in health care, education, social welfare, housing and other essential statutory services) and to propose ways of addressing them (e.g. Lazenby 1996, Little and Lazenby 1996, Nozinic 1997, Smith 1997, NCCRI 1998, O'Regan 1998, O'Sullivan 1998, African Refugee Network 1999, Clann Housing Association 1999, Fanning and Mac Éinrí 1999, Faughnan 1999, Halket and Mulloy 1999, Deveraux 2000, Irish Refugee Council 2000, Little 2000, Collins 2001a, 2001b, 2002c; Comhlámh 2001, Delany and McGee 2001, Guerin 2001, 2002, Irish Vocational Education Association 2001, O'Neill 2001, O'Neil et al. 2001, Ward 2001, 2002, 2003, Faughnan et al. 2002, Galway Refugee Support Centre 2002, McVeigh 2002, Southern Health Board 2002, Blanchardstown Area Partnership 2003, Hoare 2003, Hall 2004, Kenna and MacNeela 2004, Humphries 2006).

Several publications contain a specifically legal focus (Costello 1990, Shipsey 1994, Barcroft 1995, Byrne 1997, 2000a, 2000b, Trócaire 1998, Egan and Costello 1999, Almirall and Lawton 2000, Amnesty International 2000, Egan, N. 2000, Egan S. 2000, Harvey and Ward 2000, Irish Commission for Justice and Peace 2000, 2001, Lindenbauer and Fraser 2000, Tennant 2000, Cubie 2001a, 2001b, Mullally 2001a, 2001b, 2002, Kenny 2002, 2003a, b, Fraser and Harvey 2004).

A number of critical works concentrate on theoretical and/or broad policy issues (Collins 1977, NCCRI 1998, Toner 1998, Watt 1998, Moran 1999, Galvin 1999, Fanning et al. 2000, Galvin et al. 2000, Area Development Management 2001, Irish Commission for Justice and Peace/Trocaire 2001, 2002, Loyal and Staunton 2001, Whelan 2001, Christie 2002, Feldman 2002, Feldman et al. 2002, Hayes and Humphries 2003, Conroy 2004, Butler 2006). Other work concentrates on providing insights based upon refugees’ direct experiences and perspectives (Refugee Agency 1997, Toner 1998, African Refugee Network 1999, North of England Refugee Service et al. 2001, Mafu 2006). Certain studies situate Ireland's policy in an historical context (Ward 1996, 1998, 2000, Goldstone 2000, Fanning 2001).

Labour migration

A smaller proportion of published research to date focuses on labour migration as opposed to refugees and asylum seekers. Typically these emphasise the economic dimensions, impacts and processes underpinning the mobility of labour migrants to Ireland (FitzGerald and Kearney 1999, Chambers of Commerce 2001, 2004, Barrett et al. 2002, Conroy and Brennan 2003, Mac Éinrí and Walley 2003, Ruhs 2003, IHRC/NCCRI 2004, Kelleher and Kelleher 2004, Grabowska 2006, Bruff 2007, Dundon et al. 2007), with a number of publications looking to the impacts of 2004 EU enlargement (Quinn no date, Hansen 2002, Grabowska 2003, FitzGerald 2004, Ruhs 2005, Barrett and McCarthy 2006, Barrett et al. 2006, Doyle et al. 2006, Kropiwiec and King-O'Riain 2006, Barrell et al. 2007, Quinn and O'Connell 2007). A small amount of research has also been carried out in Northern Ireland on labour migrants (Bell et al. 2004). Apart from Kockel (1991) there is a lack of published material on counter-cultural migration into Ireland but two unpublished theses are worthy of note (Hegarty 1994, Bauer 1997).

Labour migration policies and their implementation/recommendations for change represent another important focus for research (NESC 2000, Mac Éinrí and Walley 2003, IHRC/NCCRI 2004, Kelly 2004, MRC 2004, 2006, NCCRI 2004, NCCRI/HRC 2004, Minns 2005).

Gender and migration

The importance of gender in shaping contemporary immigration into Ireland is highlighted by authors through inclusion of the voices of female migrants in empirical accounts of immigration (ICCL Women's Committee 2000, Migrant Rights Centre 2004, AkiDwA 2006) as well as through exploring the importance of gender in developing theoretical understandings of Ireland's immigrant population (Lentin 1999a, 1999b, 2003, 2005, Dibelius 2001, Lentin and Luibhéid 2003, 2004, Gray 2004). In addition, researchers have explored the provision and need for gender-specific services for immigrant women in Ireland (Kennedy and Murphy-Lawless 1999, 2002, 2003, Sultan-Prnjavorac 1999, Sansani 2001).

Return migration

Returning Irish migrants dominated immigration flows into Ireland up until the turn of the twenty-first century. It is estimated that this population numbered some 250,000 people (Ní Laoire this volume). Given the scale of these movements and number of people involved it is amazing how little attention these migrants have been afforded by researchers. Researchers have concentrated on the economic impacts, and social characteristics, of returning Irish migrants (Barrett and Trace 1998, Barrett and O'Connell 2001, Barrett 2002, Jones 2003). The social and cultural dimensions of the return of (so many elderly) Irish migrants is also a theme of this research (Gmelch 1986, Malcolm 1996, Corcoran 2002, Gray 2002, Winston 2002, Ní Laoire 2007).

Children and migration

This is an under-researched field. Clearly migrant children in Ireland face a range of obstacles and challenges that all migrant children share, as well as other challenges that are specific to their circumstance and the kinds of migrants they might be (Culleton 2004). The particular legal and emotional needs and issues facing unaccompanied child asylum seekers represent a significant proportion of the research on child migrants in Ireland (Almirall and MacNeice 1999, Barnardos 2000, Irish Refugee Council 2000, 2003, Veale et al. 2003, Vekic 2003, Mooten 2005, Mintern et al. 2006). Researchers recognise that the particular (linguistic, cultural, social and educational) needs of migrant children place demands that statutory service providers have to meet (INTO 1998, Fanning et al. 2001, Christie 2002, 2005, Ward 2003, Fanning and Veale 2004, Corrigan 2006, Wallen and Kelly-Holmes 2006). As well as this, the experiences of migrant children are also an important focus of this research, as are host community children's understandings about immigration (Keogh 2000, Keogh and Whyte 2003, Devine and Kelly 2006). The growth of intercultural education and the school's and teacher's responses to the needs of ‘newcomer’ children is also a developing area of interest (INTO 2005, Devine 2006).

Minorities

This is an emerging research field in Ireland. The reality of substantial migration in Ireland has spurred a reconsideration of the position and role of minorities more generally within Irish society. Claims about Ireland as a mono-cultural society have been shown to be false through work that has highlighted the history and development of different minority populations in Ireland over the past 100 years (Gmelch and Gmelch 1977, Ní Shúinéar 1994, MacLaughlin 1995, Quinn 1995, Ryan 1996, Irwin 1998, Keogh 1998, Lentin 2000, 2002a, b, Smith and Mutwarasibo 2000, Murphy 2002, Maguire 2004, Ugba 2004, 2006, McCombe and Khan 2005, Wang and King-O'Riain 2006). As in other areas, the experiences and needs of minority populations accessing and using statutory services represents another important area of research (Byrne and Williams 1997, Egan 1997, Gardee 1998, Ginnety 1998a, 1998b, Boyle 1999, 2003, Connolly and Keenan 2000, Faughnan and O'Donovan 2002, Equality Authority 2003, Watt and McGaughey 2006).

Racism, xenophobia and discrimination in Ireland

The modern reality of Ireland as a multi-ethnic state (although hardly a multicultural one as yet) has so far received a limited amount of scholarly attention (despite its contemporary political salience). A number of surveys have attempted to quantify reported racist behaviour and experiences (Harmony undated, Committee on the Administration of Justice 1992, Boucher 1998, Connolly and Kennan 2000, Amnesty International 2001, ECRI 2001, Jarman 2003). However these can be criticized on a number of grounds (see Garner and White 2001).

Some authors reject quantitative survey based research and instead argue that contemporary Irish racisms need to be first understood within debates about constructions of the Self and Other, belonging and not belonging, inclusion and exclusion, signification and, above all, power (see McVeigh 1992, 1996, 1998, Mann-Kler 1997, Hainsworth 1998, Tannam et al. 1998, Fanning 2000, 2002a, 2002b, Fekete 2000, Lentin and McVeigh 2002, 2006a, 2006b, Rolston and Shannon 2002, Loyal 2003, Garner 2004, 2005, Lentin 2004, Moriarty 2004, Chan 2006, Lentin and Lentin 2006, Mac Éinrí 2007). Much of this work is based upon Robbie McVeigh's groundbreaking work (McVeigh 1992, 1996). It is also heavily indebted (implicitly at least) to a sophisticated and developed (if relatively small) body of research on anti-traveller racism in Ireland (McCann et al. 1994, MacLaughlin 1996, 1999, Helleiner 2000, 2001). Recent theoretical developments have sought to explicitly tie racism in Ireland to the actions, practices and technologies of the state. Lentin (2004); see also Lentin and McVeigh 2006a) argues that Ireland provides a textbook example of what Goldberg has called the ‘racial state’. These arguments place enormous question marks over the intention and credibility of the Irish state's policies of integration and interculturalism (see Lentin 2007).

Citizenship, integration and multiculturalism

The politics and policies of integration has only begun to receive attention in Ireland. Behind a policy of vague respect for multicultural ideas there lurks a de facto assimilationism. A number of official texts, largely aspirational in nature and content, have been published (Department of Equality, Justice and Law Reform 1999, 2002, Equality Authority 2003a, 2003b). Other texts approach the topic of diversity from a sectoral viewpoint, e.g. health (National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism 2002, Crowley 2003) and education (Irish National Teachers Organisation 1998, Clarke and Killeavy 2001, Fitzgibbon and Cotter 2002, Deegan 2003, Ward 2003). A small number of studies consider integration from a theoretical and/or policy standpoint (Lentin 1999, 2001, Bauer 2001, Longley and Kiberd 2001, MacLachlan and O'Connell 2001, Ingram 2003, MacLachlan 2003, Gilligan 2006, Gray 2006a, 2006b, Healy and Collins 2007, Mac Éinrí 2007a). A very small number of studies consider the issue from the perspective of new communities themselves (Vaarasan-Twomey 1998, Mutwarasibo and Smith 2000, Mutwarasibo and McCarthy 2003, Rourke 2003, Fanning and Mutwarasibo 2007), while other studies explore the dynamics of integration within local communities in Ireland (Brehony and Clancy 2006, Mac Éinrí and Coakley 2007a, 2007b).

Conclusion

Of course simply counting the numbers of works cited ignores the contexts within which this research is produced, consumed and circulated. For example, comparing a research paper in a peer reviewed academic journal with a research report for a local authority is problematic in terms of, say, the differences in editorial deadlines, audience expectations and publication outlets. That said, the ‘raw’ bibliography reveals at least three patterns of interest.

Firstly, the lack of inclusion of geographers in this bibliography is disappointing. Barring one or two key individuals (Mac Éinrí and MacLaughlin come to mind) geographers are included as the authors of occasional papers and theses. This is especially dispiriting considering the value and insight a geographic lens might allow. Knowing the annual rates and flows coming into the country and the ways in which these position Ireland within global circuits and flows of people and information or identifying the place(s) people live once they move to Ireland are questions to do with locations, linkages, connections, place and space. Exploring the ways in which local places have been reshaped through globalised flows of immigrants, the ways in which identities have been reconfigured within these flows and the ways in which these follow on from globalised flows of emigrants from previous periods are all profoundly geographic questions.

This should not be simply read as a territorial claim from a particular disciplinary perspective. The potential contribution geographers can make to the debates about migration into Ireland can have important political consequences. Witness the potential insights Ireland's strengths in rural geography might offer to our understanding of the impact of migration in small towns and villages across Ireland. Attention to the spatial distribution and pattern of migrant populations across time may help uncover the ways in which local places and spaces in Ireland have been shaped by successive flows of (young economically active) people leaving and moving into other local labour markets. Equally, geographers can assist in developing perspectives on Ireland's place within unfolding global systems of flows of people, capital and things. Claims are repeatedly made that Ireland's experience of immigration is new. These are often used as an (increasingly dated) explanation for the Irish state's failure to plan and provide services for Ireland's (migrant and non-migrant) communities. Geographers can, through their research, illustrate that Ireland has long been a part of these globalised flows of people and capital and how these flows have shifted. Put simply (again), instead of leaving these issues for other disciplines to explore, geographers need to engage with immigration into Ireland and use their ‘geographic eye’ to produce their specific insights.

Secondly, taken together the references paint an uneven picture of the research terrain of an ‘Irish Migration Studies’. There has been a sustained level of attention in some areas (asylum, racism and anti-racism) but less devoted to others (gender, return migration, children and migration) (see Table 1). Put bluntly, there are some real gaps in the knowledge profile about contemporary migration into Ireland. For example, very little research is being carried out on the diverse communities that make up Ireland's (skilled and unskilled) labour migrants. Even less is known about their children (who are attending primary and secondary schools across the country). Nor is this a static picture; while interest in some migrant flows (in particular labour migration) has increased in recent years, it has waned in others (witness the slowdown in ‘asylum related research’ since 2004). This may be because of a switch in the relative importance of labour migrants within immigration into Ireland since the 2004 expansion of the EU and hence a re-orientation in researchers’ interests. It is also likely to be the result of changes in funding streams as NGOs and statutory authorities target research on labour migrants instead of asylum seekers and refugees. Certainly a higher proportion of research on asylum seekers (51 per cent) as compared to labour migrants (38 per cent) was commissioned by the NGO sector, which could support this conclusion. However it is impossible to come to any firm conclusions based on this bibliography. The emergence of a number of interdisciplinary research centres devoted to migration studies in Irish universities (in Dublin City University (DCU), Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and University College Dublin (UCD)) in the past two years have done something to repair the damage wrought by the closure of what was the only specialist migration research centre in Ireland in University College Cork (UCC) in 2003. These centres, existing state research bodies and the increasing interest of a number of professional bodies and associations in migration can help fill some of the gaps in research on migration into Ireland. However this bibliography should serve notice to human geographers (and others) that there are some areas and questions which urgently require research and attention.

Table 1. Numbers of publications by sector.

Immigration, general studies	87
Asylum-related research	97
Labour migration	35
Gender and migration	19
Return migration	8
Children and migration	21
Minorities	33
Racism, xenophobia, discrimination	52
Integration, interculturalism	39
Total	391

Finally the theorisation of international migration in much of the research cited here is implicit rather than explicit, and this owes in part to the contexts within which research on immigration into Ireland is produced. For instance much of the research on asylum could be classed as ‘reactive’, i.e. 75 out of 96 publications in the field of asylum and refugee studies deal in some way with urgent issues, legal shortcomings and problems of needs or service provision. Resource limitations and deadline pressures can often mean that research that is produced does not have the time to explore the theoretical debates that dominate in other literatures. A related danger lies in the small number of policy-related publications. This in part reflects the exigencies of funding for research (it tends to focus on short-term ‘crisis’ issues) and partly reflects the absence of a policy community embracing statutory and non-statutory stakeholders in this field in Ireland (although there are signs that this is changing).

The effects of this are manifold. One is that in the absence of theoretical debates about transnationalism, mobility or diasporas there is a danger that research on immigration into Ireland will reproduce an ‘exceptionalist’ view of Ireland – as unique and different – whereas in fact Ireland should be located within globalised systems and movements of people, capital and things. As the opening section of this paper has outlined, Ireland's position within the global flows of (primarily labour) migrants has switched from being a source of migrants to being a destination country. The salient point to be made here is that the advent of large-scale immigration into Ireland is simultaneously new and exceptional and the reversal of much older and established social and economic processes.

In conclusion, then, the debate in Ireland concerning immigration has focused to an excessive extent on asylum and refugee numbers, while the revolution in labour immigration has only recently become the subject of public debate. Attention is only now being devoted to the long-term questions of integration, which are now posed for an increasingly multi-ethnic society which has traditionally seen itself in mono-ethnic terms. The challenge for the future is to create a successful integration policy, embracing a broader approach to identity and citizenship and providing immigrants and host society members with the tools needed to come to terms with the new realities. Such an approach will necessarily require major change as well as an acknowledgement that Ireland's own past has never been as monocultural as claimed and that indigenous and older minorities have also suffered discrimination and marginalisation. In these tasks, academics and, we would argue, geographers in particular can play an enormously important role. It is with this in mind, and also the difficulties our students can experience finding literature and published research, that we have undertaken this bibliography as primarily a resource for future researchers.

Notes

1. Hereafter ‘Ireland’.

2. The establishment of a number of research initiatives exploring immigration in a number of Irish universities, specifically UCD, DCU and TCD. is a welcome development. In addition there are plans to re-open the Irish Centre for Migration Studies in UCC.

3. There is an urgent need for a comprehensive and constantly updated bibliography on migration to Ireland similar to the gender in geography bibliography organised by the FEMGEOG listserv discussion group members, see http://www.emporia.edu/socsci/fembib/.

4. Note however that Travellers, in the strict sense, fall outside the scope of this review. For that reason a few illustrative references are cited but this is not a comprehensive list. Historical and general references, e.g. on Jewish immigration into Ireland. should also not be regarded as more than illustrative.

5. Population and Migration Estimates, CSO, April 2005.

6. Small numbers of refugees (from Hungary, Chile, Vietnam) were admitted into Ireland as part of organised reception programmes in the 1950s, 1970s and 1980s.

7. It should be pointed out that migrants also went to rural parts of more developed countries, although this was often seasonal and was proportionately much more modest than movements to urban areas.

8. Judging by return rates of Irish migrants in the 1990s, up to half those currently in Ireland from Central and Eastern Europe may ultimately go home. In the medium term Poles and Latvians may well give way to Bulgarians and Romanians and, in the longer term, to Turks, Russians, Moldovans and Ukrainians.