Why did Ireland become so open to immigration?

Professor Bryan Fanning University College Dublin’

The ambiguous place of immigants:nationals v. ‘non-nationals’

In 2009:

in 2009 47% of applications for Irish citizenship refused compared with 9% equivalent refusals in the UK, 9% in Australia and 3% in Canada

• 80% voted in a Referendum to remove the right to Irish citizenship from the Irish-born children of immigrants

• Ireland became one of three existing EU countries to immediately open its borders to migrants from the ten new Accession States

In 2004

In 2001

Immigration has been an important element in the economic and social development of Ireland… That migrant labour helped fuel and support the Celtic Tiger is indisputable (NESC, 2006: 6).

Immigration was not the cause of the Irish economic miracle, but it

can help to sustain the Celtic Tiger’s economic growth. As Ireland grapples with the ‘’problem’’ of managing migration on its journey to an uncertain destination, it is important to remember that immigration reflects Irish prosperity. Despite the problems associated with managing immigration and integration, there are likely few Irish who would want to go back to the ‘’old days’’ in which emigration rather than immigration was the dominant theme (NESC, 2006: 94)

The consensus on large-scale immigration

In 2006, in Dublin

EU Migrants (2011)

Nigerian Migrants (2011)

21st Century Ireland: The Rules of Belonging?