A new study from the ESRI has found that foreign-born residents in Ireland are more likely to be employed, engaged in the labour market, and have higher levels of education compared to those born in Ireland, reports RTE.
The latest Monitoring Report on Integration examines how migrants compare to the Irish-born population in terms of employment, education, social inclusion, and active citizenship.
The report highlights that, despite their higher employment rates, migrants tend to have lower incomes and face a greater risk of poverty and deprivation (14.5%) than Irish-born residents (11%), reports RTE.
The study also found that migrants are significantly more affected by high housing costs, with 37% spending more than 30% of their income on housing, compared to just 9% of Irish-born residents.
The ESRI described the findings on housing costs as “particularly stark.”
The report, jointly published by the ESRI, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and the Department of Justice, is the latest in a series analysing migrant integration in Ireland, reports RTE.
It found that since 2022, migrants have continued to have higher employment and labour market participation rates than Irish-born residents.
Employment rates have remained strong since their recovery in 2021 when they briefly fell to the same level as Irish-born workers due to the Covid-19 pandemic, reports RTE.
Education—an important factor in measuring integration—was another area where migrants outperformed Irish-born residents.
Between 2021 and 2023, 59% of working-age foreign-born residents had completed tertiary education, compared to 42% of Irish-born individuals.
However, education levels varied by region of birth, with the lowest rate among migrants from eastern EU countries (38%) and the highest among those from Asia (79%), reports RTE.
Excluding the agricultural sector, Irish-born residents (10.3%) remained more likely to be self-employed than foreign-born residents (8.4%) in 2024.
However, self-employment rates were higher among those born in the UK (15.3%) and in North America, Australia, and Oceania (15.5%) compared to Irish-born residents, reports RTE.
The research also indicated a rise in political participation among immigrants, with the number of candidates and elected representatives doubling in the 2024 local elections, albeit from a low starting point.
Despite this progress, councillors with a migrant background still make up only 2.2% of the total, reports RTE.
“Recent positive developments in migrant integration include strong growth in the African employment rate and improvements in citizenship processing times,” said Evan Carron-Kee, co-author of the report, reports RTE.
“However, there are also some persistent challenges. Migrants are disproportionately impacted by the housing crisis and are much more likely to experience income poverty and deprivation. These issues require urgent policy attention,” Mr Carron-Kee said, reports RTE.
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