Learning from Poland? What Recent Mass Immigration to Ireland Tells Us about Contemporary Irish Migration

Abstract

Immigration in Europe is still understood in terms of the ‘Gastarbeiter’ immigration of the post-World War II boom: the permanent movement of unskilled workers from one country to another. A study of young educated Polish migrants in Dublin shows the limited contemporary relevance of this model: this was mobility rather than traditional migration, with journeys understood in terms of autonomy and self-development. Some contemporary Irish emigration is similar. The mass emigration of young people from Poland at the start of this century was prototypical for the individualistic forms of mobility of young Europeans today.