Attitudes towards immigrants have worsened in Ireland since the recession began with 1/5 of people saying none should be allowed into the country.
A new report from the ESRI has found that in 2010 22% of people in Ireland said no immigrants from poor non-EU countries should be allowed to come here. That is compared to 6% in 2002.
Opinions on the effect of immigration on the economy are more negative here than in Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK.
The economic body says that Irish attitudes towards immigrants were very positive in the period of 2002 to 2006, and have become more negative since 2006.
It says views on the contribution that immigrants make to the economy have become more negative than those on their contribution to cultural life.
Highly-educated groups in Ireland have more positive attitudes to immigrants and immigration while lower-educated groups are less positive.
It adds that younger adults tend to show more positive attitudes to immigrants and immigration; the over-65 group have the most negative attitudes.
Key findings from the report include:
- The consistent poverty rate among Non-EU nationals, at over 12%, is almost twice as high as amongst Irish nationals (just over 6%) in 2010, and the gap between Irish and non-EU nationals has widened since 2008
- Almost one third of first-generation immigrants aged 15 scored below the basic level of English reading proficiency in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests (2009). This compares to almost 1 in 6 of Irish 15-year-olds
- At the start of 2012 the unemployment rate was 18.5% among non-Irish nationals, compared to just under 15% for Irish nationals. Overall non-Irish nationals have been harder hit in the labour market by the current recession than Irish nationals
- During 2011, 9,500 nationals of countries outside the European Economic Association (EEA) acquired Irish citizenship, compared to just under 5,000 in 2010
Dr. Francis McGinnity is author of the report and Senior Research Officer with the ESRI. She told Breakfast here on Newstalk that some of the views on immigration here are similar to those found in Britain.
