Professor James Wickham

Summary

Our 'Migrant Careers' study suggested that Polish migration to Ireland was prototypical for other emerging European migrations - including that from Ireland today. The proposed project further develops our Qualitative Panel Study methodology to re-interview young Poles who worked in Ireland during the boom and interview a matching group of Irish graduate emigrants. We evaluate whether novel forms of migrant careers exist within the European the mobility space, the impact on migrants' careers of two different conjunctures (bubble and recession) and finally the lasting consequences for Irish employment regulation of the periods of mass immigration and mass emigration.

Funding Agency

Irish Research Council

Programme

Advanced Collaborative Research Project

Project Type

Research

Summary

After housing, for most people their major investment is a car. In countries such as Ireland car ownership, like home ownership, is taken as self-evidently desirable, yet the extent and form of both are massively shaped by public policy. However, cars, like houses, have to be bought. Car purchase often involves substantial debt and the expansion of car ownership is thus interwoven with the development of the financial services industry. Furthermore, motoring costs as a proportion of total household expenditure vary inversely with income. Like home ownership, car ownership is both entangled with the growth of the financial services industry and involves particular risks for low income groups; this is especially the case when some policies (e.g. limited public transport, dispersed settlement pattern) make car ownership crucial for low income groups. The final stages of the Celtic Tiger boom appear to have been an extreme case of this convergence: with a credit bubble and massive housing price inflation, home ownership, suburban sprawl, car ownership and consumer debt all expanded together. In this context the research project examines the relationship between social exclusion and mobility in an epoch of financialisation. In the current crisis it is arguable that those most threatened by new social exclusion are those most dependent on the expansion of both mobility and credit in the boom - those on first time mortgages in new suburban areas. Has the crisis created new forms of exclusion for new social groups, and if so, how does their experience compare with those of groups who already have a long term experience of social exclusion? The project will comprise case studies of two distinct suburban areas of Dublin: an established 'working class' area with high levels of unemployment even during the boom years, a second an area with new private sector housing constructed during the boom. It will largely use qualitative interview techniques as well as visual ethnography and existing statistical data. The project combines the research methods and concerns of the developing field of mobility studies both with the well established field of social exclusion and the new area of the financialisation of everyday life, including the role of assets and debt in social stratification

Funding Agency

TCD Arts and Social Sciences Benefaction Fund

Project Type

Research

Summary

Much of the debate on immigration in Ireland today is concerned with the question m of 'integration'. However, this assumes that contemporary immigrants will in fact be staying in Ireland, even though there is considerable evidence that this is not necessarily the case. Equally, it is assumed that employers utilise migrant labour because of 'skill shortages', but there is no discussion of how this relates to the overall nature of employment in Irish workplaces. This project therefore studies the interaction of migrants' and employers' strategies. It studies the choices of both sides of the new employment relationship through analysis of individual migrants' careers and case studies of workplaces. To tackle these issues Migrant Careers and Aspirations uses a qualitative panel study of both immigrants and workplaces, flanked by a systematic monitoring of labour market trends. Fieldwork will begin in late 2007. The research will thus follow immigrants to Ireland as they move through the labour market. It will provide the first systematic study of migrants' careers and aspirations and how these change over time.

Funding Agency

Philanthropic

Programme

Trinity Immigration Initiative

Person Months

36

Summary

Analysis of the challenges facing national employment systems within the European Union; in particular the extent to which distinctive national structures are being reproduced.

Funding Agency

European Commission

Programme

6FP

Project Type

STREP

Summary

Analysis of the factors generating business travel and the location of particularly travel-intensive forms of business; the implications of extensive travel for work/life balance and social involvement.

Funding Agency

IIIS

Programme

PRTLI