IMMIGRANTS FROM the 12 central and eastern European states that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 have been hardest hit by the recession, with almost one in five out of work.
They also have the least satisfactory experience of work, with many overqualified for their jobs, working on temporary contracts and less likely to receive training on the job, a new study has found.
The Annual Monitoring Report on Integration 2010, which is published today by the Integration Centre and the Economic and Social Research Institute, shows immigrants have suffered more job losses and a higher unemployment rate than Irish nationals.
Between the start of 2008 and the first quarter of 2010 the number of migrants employed fell 30 per cent, compared to a fall of 9 per cent for Irish nationals.
Central and eastern Europeans are the worst affected group of immigrants with an unemployment rate of 18 per cent, the highest of all workers surveyed.
British nationals have the next highest jobless rate at 16.9 per cent; non-EU nationals 15.4 per cent; Irish nationals 13.1 per cent; and immigrants from the 13 “old” EU states (excluding Ireland and Britain) have the lowest jobless rate of 6.7 per cent.
The report notes a considerable share of British nationals and nationals from the 13 “old” EU states are employed as managers, administrators or professionals. However, overall immigrants are less likely to be in a permanent position and receive less gross earnings than Irish nationals.
The recession prompted a 70 per cent fall in the number of immigrants coming to Ireland between 2007 and 2010, and a return to net emigration. The share of immigrants from the 12 new EU states of all immigrants has fallen from 40 per cent between 2005 and 2008 to 19 per cent in 2010, says the report.
Of the total workforce of just over two million people aged over 15 years in 2010, 283,000 were non-Irish nationals.
The report aims to provide a comprehensive picture of the state of integration in Ireland, focusing on employment, education, social inclusion and political participation of immigrants.
It shows immigrants have considerably higher educational qualifications than Irish nationals, which is partly due to their younger age profile. Immigrant children from English-speaking backgrounds have scores as high as their Irish peers but those from non-English speaking backgrounds have much lower achievement scores in maths and reading.
The report says cuts to supports for immigrant children in schools are likely to have damaging consequences for integration. It also criticises higher rates of discrimination suffered by immigrants and cuts to bodies charged with combating discrimination.
Long delays in processing citizenship applications, a lack of clarity on entitlements attached to long-term residency status and the high degree of discretion exercised in processing naturalisation applications are key policy problems, according to the report.
Killian Forde, chief executive of the Integration Centre, said a strategic focus was needed to address unemployment and under-employment among immigrants.
“This report shows that whilst immigrants are better qualified than Irish nationals, their unemployment rate is substantially higher. This has major ramifications for the Irish economy.”
The Integration Centre is an NGO committed to the integration and inclusion of people from immigrant backgrounds in Ireland.