Recent anglo-irish migration - the evidence of the british-labour-force surveys

Abstract

Precis: This paper uses unpublished data from the British Labour Force Surveys of 1973, 1975 and 1977 to shed some light on recent Anglo-Irish Migration. The focus throughout is on the migration of Irish-born persons to and from Britain. A comparison of the results of the British Census of Population 1971 and the Labour Force Survey of 1977 suggests net emigration of some 71,000 Irish-born persons from Britain during this interval. The age structure of this emigrant stream is compared with that revealed for immigrants to Ireland by the 1979 Irish Census. Notwithstanding this net outflow of Irish-born from Britain, the Labour Force Surveys suggest that significant numbers of young persons still emigrate from Ireland to Britain. The paper also attempts to establish the importance of the recession in the British economy as a factor inducing the return migration of a significant number of Irish-born persons from Britain.