The Immigrant Experience, through the Irish looking glass

Hello there...

Here's something I (Barry McPhee) wrote on 1/11/2006 (that's 11/01/2006 if you're American):

It is among the central group of topics within Irish society currently: how should/must Ireland react to its waves of immigrants, and what IS Ireland right now as a result of it? So, I’ve been taking periodic stabs at classifying us on the immigrant spectrum:
• We are a hybrid immigrant/citizen mix
• We may be resented for leaving our American jobs to come here to compete for Irish jobs along with the Poles (it’s the Poles who’ve attained dubious distinction here of being the archetypical wage-undercutting, job-stealing immigrant).
• We are competing for low- to mid-level white collar jobs…is this subtype an issue? Can’t tell yet.
Meanwhile, consensus among the locals seems to be “why would they come from America to LISTOWEL for God’s sake??? They must be mad!”

More on this topic as it, and our perception of it, develop.