BREXIT HAS RESULTED in a number of challenges with cross-border travel between Ireland and Northern Ireland for some migrants on the island. 

New research carried out under the joint research programme between the Department of Taoiseach’s Shared Island Unit and the ESRI looks at migrant integration on the island of Ireland.

It examines how migrants are faring in employment and education, as well as attitudes towards migration in Ireland and Northern Ireland and migrants’ experiences of cross-border travel since Brexit.

It uses the latest comparable national and international survey data and insights from a consultation event with migrants and migrant organisations in October 2022.

Both Ireland and Northern Ireland have seen an increase in inward migration in recent decades.

However, in Ireland, a larger share of the working-age population was born abroad (20%) than in Northern Ireland (9%), with the majority of migrants in both jurisdictions born in Europe.

The report found that a significant proportion of those born outside of the island are citizens of their new places of residence (Ireland or Northern Ireland). This share is greater in Ireland, where 35% of migrants are Irish citizens, than in Northern Ireland, where just 17% of those born outside the UK are British citizens.

Work and education

In both jurisdictions, most migrant groups are highly skilled and more likely to have third-level qualifications than the native-born population. However, the skills profile of migrants is generally higher in Ireland than in Northern Ireland, the report found. 

According to the research, migrants in both jurisdictions have high employment rates, particularly EU migrants.

A higher proportion of migrants in both jurisdictions work in professional/managerial jobs than non-migrants. However, Eastern Europeans in both jurisdictions are much less likely to be in professional managerial jobs.

In Ireland, the report found little difference in either academic achievement scores or well-being at age 15 between migrant-origin children (those born abroad) and their Irish-origin peers.

In Northern Ireland, first generation migrant-origin children have considerably lower achievement scores in English reading and mathematics than their Northern Irish/UK origin peers, the study found. 

Second generation migrant-origin children in Northern Ireland have similar achievement scores but have lower well-being than young people of Northern Irish/UK origin.

Cross-border travel

Brexit has brought the issue of cross-border travel between Ireland and Northern Ireland to the fore, the report outlines. 

A consultation event with a wide range of organisations working with migrants and other key stakeholders raised a range of challenges, according to the study.

“Cross-border travel can be a fraught experience for some migrants. Cross-border work has become considerably more complex,” the report said. 

“Some migrants may be effectively excluded from participation in activities such as education-related events, sports events, holidays, religious events, and family gatherings that require cross-border travel.”

One significant challenge raised in the consultation event related to border checks, particularly in travel from Northern Ireland to Ireland, the report noted. 

“With spot immigration checks, the consultation group highlighted instances of discrimination, with some checks on the basis of skin colour, or sometimes clothes and language/accent; other migrants who look and sound the same as most people living in Ireland and Northern Ireland are not checked,” the report said. 

The consultation group also raised a lack of clarity around rights and entitlements to travel, work and access services in the other jurisdiction, which has “led to considerable feelings of fear and uncertainty among migrant groups”.

“This, in turn, has a negative impact on migrants’ economic, social, and cultural integration, in that they are or feel limited in participating in cross-border activities or travel across the border,” the report said. 

The study outlined that in 2017/2018, attitudes to migrants were more favourable in Ireland than in Northern Ireland on a range of outcomes measured.

These differences in attitudes appear to be mostly explained by people in Ireland being more likely to have migrants in their social networks, being more optimistic about the future, and being more likely to believe their voice is heard in politics than people in Northern Ireland, the report said. 

“Migrants make a substantial contribution to the economy and society in both Ireland and Northern Ireland, but they can also face challenges in the labour market, as well as in cross-border travel and access to work and services,” report co-author Frances McGinnity said.

“Some of these challenges appear greater in Northern Ireland, such as facing more negative attitudes about migration or in the achievement of the children of migrants in school,” McGinnity said.

“Differences in attitudes appear to be mostly explained by people in Ireland being more likely to have migrants in their social networks, being more optimistic about the future, and more likely to believe their voice is heard in politics than people in Northern Ireland.”