Do people ever come back to this country?

Q: Do many people who emigrate return to Ireland eventually?

Figures show that, despite the recession, a significant number of Irish emigrants have returned in recent years. About 104,000 have returned to Ireland since 2008.

The figures have remained remarkably consistent. Last year, about 20,600 Irish emigrants came home and, bad and all as things are here, about 52,700 people came to live in Ireland from overseas.

The figures, which are contained in the Central Bank of Ireland’s quarterly bulletin and are based on figures supplied by the Central Statistics Office, augur well for the future if there is an upturn in the economy, according to its analyst Thomas Conefrey.

Although there is often a perception that there is either mass immigration into Ireland when the economy is growing, or mass emigration in times of recession, the reality is much more complex with people also leaving Ireland in good times and arriving when the economy is faltering.

“Just as immigration has continued in recent years while economic activity has been weak, there was also emigration during the period of economic expansion between 2000 and 2007,” explains Conefrey. “Viewed in this historical context, the continuing inflow is not unusual.”

There is no data here as to why so many Irish people are returning home or where they are returning from.

“We don’t know. Anything I’d say is pure speculation and I don’t like speculation,” he says, though he ventures that there may be job vacancies in the Irish economy in certain sectors, the cost of living, particularly housing is cheaper, and there is also the factor of young Irish people returning home after their work visas for other countries have expired.

He cites a report issued in 2010, which found that returning Irish emigrants earn an average of €180 more a week than those who have never worked abroad. When the figures are adjusted to compare those who have similar qualifications and skills, the premium for returning emigrants is 7 per cent.

“If the time abroad is used to learn new skills and languages, then emigration can have positive impacts on countries such as Ireland,” he says.

Immigration into Ireland peaked in 2007 when 151,000 people arrived into the country, mostly from EU accession states. It dipped significantly in 2010 when just 41,800 people came but increased again in 2011 and last year to more than 50,000 each year.