Ireland, the land of “welcome” and “goodbye”

69,300 people moved to the country in the last year on the other hand 80,900 people of all nationalities moved out of Ireland.

If a foreign person goes for a simple walk in Dublin city center they will realise that they are not the only one. Sometimes it is not easy to listen to English on the streets and if you find someone speaking the language it will probably have a foreign accent. Immigration in Ireland has increased for the third year, it rose by 14%.

But Ireland is not just a place that receives a lot of immigrants, 35,300 Irish people also leave the island every year. The amount was higher in the past but improvements in the economy and a fall in unemployment contributed to a 13% drop in the number of emigrants comparing to the last year.  The difference between the number of emigrants and immigrants is 11,600, down 45% on the previous year.

The majority of people leaving the island were aged between 25 and 44, with 39,700, a 5%  raise on last year. The number of 45 to 64-year-olds emigrating also rose, by almost one-third to 4,500. The UK is the most popular destination for emigrants leaving the country, but Canada is the nation which had a substantial jump in numbers of people arriving from Ireland, from 4,700 to 7,700.  This increase can be explained by the new rules for working holiday visas for Irish people started on the beginning of 2014. US and Australia lost popularity in the last year, 15% and 25% respectively.

• Flávia Lovisi