Recession hitting immigrants hard
Joanna Skuza (left), Gregor Skuza and Roksana Nowicka from Donabate Community College at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2010 in the RDS.
THE recession appears to be having a disproportionate impact on nonIrish nationals living in the country, according to a group of students from Donabate who have looked into the subject.
Following up on a similar topic from last year's Young Scientists' competition, Roksana Nowicka, Gregore Skuza and Joanna Skuza from Donabate Community College, looked into the impact of the recession on Ireland's immigrant community. The group said: ' We decided to extend our survey to a sample group of all non-Irish nationals living all over the country and to look at the effect of the economic difficulties on this group.
' We designed a questionnaire and surveyed a sample group of non-Irish nationals.'
Survey
The results that the survey threw up appear to show that the recession is biting hard in the country's immigrant population.
A staggering 46% of the males in the sample group tested by the Donabate students had lost their jobs in the recession.
Most of that number were involved in the construction industry which has been devastated by the economic crisis.
The situation was marginally better among females but even this group had suffered massive job losses, with some 36% of the women in the group losing their jobs in the recession.
The falling income of the country's immigrant population is also affecting their family life and leading to more separation and isolation in the community from their family roots back home.
The survey found that non-Irish nationals are making far fewer trips back to their home countries because they cannot afford to travel.
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- John MANNING
