A QUARTER OF all children born in Ireland in 2012 were born to a non-Irish mother, a new study has found.
These results came as part of a new study conducted by Trinity College Dublin with a focus on second-generation children born to migrant parents.
Speaking about the survey, principle investigator Dr Antje Röder said:
There is now much greater diversity amongst young families in Ireland. This brings with it great opportunities, but also challenges that need to be addressed to ensure all children born in Ireland have opportunities to grow up to fulfil their potential.
Interestingly, the study also found that it was more common for a child to have one migrant parent and one parent native to Ireland than to have two migrant parents.
However, these ‘mixed’ couples were much more likely to come between UK born and the older EU member states. Relationships between an Irish parent and a partner from Africa, an EU accession state or Asia were less common.
One of the themes highlighted in the study was socio-economic disadvantage experienced by groups of migrant parents. Families of second generation children were more likely to live in rented accommodation and apartments rather than houses.
Parents from EU accession states, Asia and Africa were found to have higher levels of education but to be more frequently found in the semi and unskilled classes with a greater chance of encountering poverty.
In the report, it was found that Irish mothers were more likely to return to work by the time the child is nine months than most immigrant mothers. The only exception to this were mothers from Asia, two thirds of those who worked prior to their pregnancies returning to work.
The group least likely to return to work after a birth were mothers from EU accession states. In this group, less than one in four of those who had previously been in work returned to full time employment.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say