[LINK] Ireland, a high-immigration country?

[rfmcdonald]

Bloomberg U.K> carries an interesting journalistic survey of the immigration situation in the Republic of Ireland.

In the four years to 1995, Ireland was the only one of the 15 member nations of the European Union where the number of people leaving outnumbered arrivals.

From 1994 to 1999, immigration was the second-highest in the then 15 EU nations after Luxembourg, according to the Irish Immigration Council. The accession of the 10 Eastern European nations to the EU provided a new spurt of migrants.

Dublin-based Bank of Ireland Plc, the biggest Irish lender by assets, is hiring bilingual staff and translating product information into Mandarin, Polish and Russian.

City Channel, the cable station broadcasting the country's first Polish program in Dublin, is considering similar programs for other migrant groups, said Olivia Reilly, a spokeswoman for the company.

If the number of foreign-born people in Ireland doubles by 2030, they would account for 18 percent of the population, more than the current level for ``high-immigration countries'' such as the U.S., Germany and Sweden and Austria, said Aidan Punch, an analyst at the statistics office, today.