Support migrant centric journalism today and donate
Ireland is seeing a large drop in skilled immigrants entering the country through its work permit program. The number of people entering the country through this route dropped by 19 percent in 2010.
At the close of 2010, only 18,987 foreign nationals held work permits, down from 23,470 in 2009 and 30,556 in 2008. There has been a significant increase in unemployment as a result of the global financial crisis of 2008. Also, stricter immigration requirements imposed by the Government mean it is more difficult to emigrate to Ireland.
When unemployment took a turn for the worse in Ireland, the Government increased the time that an employer must post a job to enable Irish citizens and residents to apply before looking overseas.
Only 7,786 work permits were issued in 2010 to non-EU citizens, with Indian nationals taking a significant share of work permits at 2,137. In fact, more Indians immigrated to Ireland in 2010 than in 2009; 1,788 work permits issued to workers from India in 2009.
Organisations based in Ireland that issued the most work permits to non-EU nationals were the Health Service Executive, followed by Indian tech company Wipro Technologies and US firm Google.
While skilled immigration into Ireland is decreasing overall, Ireland is still a magnet for highly skilled migrants.
"These work permit figures reflect the fact there will always be a certain level of high-skills technology, medical and engineering intra-company transfers into Ireland," said Bill Abom of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland.
