Lithuanian immigrants urged to come home

THE LITHUANIAN government has begun a recruitment drive to try to encourage some of the estimated 70,000 immigrants living here to return home.

Like Ireland, Lithuania has had some good times, but they have come to a dramatic halt. Economic growth at a respectable 4.5 per cent this year is likely to fall to 0.5 per cent next year. House prices have fallen by 20 per cent and wages, which went up by 15 per cent last year, are static.

However, the government there is hoping the worsening unemployment situation in Ireland and the homesickness many immigrants feel after several years here will persuade them to return home.

There were more exhibitors than prospective returning immigrants at a jobs fair in the Burlington hotel in Dublin last night, but organisers are hoping to attract thousands of Lithuanians at the Burlington hotel today and at the Four Seasons hotel in Monaghan town tomorrow. Monaghan has the highest proportion of Lithuanians, many of whom work in the mushroom industry.

The conference is being run by the International Organisation for Migration on behalf of the Lithuanian ministry of social security and labour. Conference organiser Ieva Búdvytyté said the purpose was as much to give information to returning emigrants as to offer jobs.

"A lot of Lithuanians are now unemployed in Ireland and we are saying it is easier to live in a crisis in your country where you are near to your family and friends," she said.

Recruitment firms for sales, information technology and engineering positions, real estate giant Remax and the Lithuanian police and army are among the exhibitors at the Burlington.

Polivas Kytra of CV Markets, Lithuania's biggest online recruitment firm, said they had about 1,000 jobs available, especially in sales, which is still enjoying a boom despite the economic crisis. Although the average net wage in Lithuania is about €700 a month, he says there is no shortage of expatriates looking to return home.

"In recent months, we have noticed there are more people coming back from Ireland than going there," Mr Kytra said. "The economic crisis might be even bigger in Lithuania, but they tell us they miss the country and especially the good weather."

Marija Bakunaite said she returned from Britain to take up a hotel job in the capital Vilnius in March and had been promoted from receptionist to front-of-house manager. "In Lithuania, you are local - when you are abroad, you are just an immigrant. The wages may be half but it is worth it."

Jacinta Bacuskaite, who has lived in Ireland for six years, said she was prepared to move home although she had a good job working in human resources.

"I'm single and there is nothing here to keep me. I like Ireland, but I miss Lithuania. We have real seasons in Lithuania."