December 2007
Happy
New Year!
Happy New Year! We send out this email bulletin to keep you informed about issues affecting the Irish abroad as well as those intending to emigrate or to return.
Your suggestions are welcome! If you'd like to share any
aspect of your work, or would like to alert those working with
emigrants about any issue that may affect them, or just have thoughts
you'd like to express, let me know at noreen@emigrantnetwork.ie.
Thanks! Your feedback will help our newsletter to grow and
develop. - Noreen Bowden
AGM:
download the proceedings!
It was great to see those of you who could make Ean's AGM
and seminar. About thirty people attended the day. We recorded all the
events
for those who couldn't join us, so check out our website for the audio
recordings - you can see all the notes from the visual presentations
there as well.
We had a great day of discussions on a variety of issues affecting emigrants, including the Goodbody report on value for money in emigrant service provision, and political participation by emigrants. Author Philip Orr on foreign military service as a form of emigration, and Irish Times journalist Patsy McGarry gave an inspiring talk on the media and emigration, while Karen McHugh discussed our assisted holiday project. We were fortunate to have Paschal Mooney and Seamus Scally as our facilitators for the day, and our outgoing chair, Fr Alan Hilliard, gave a speech that received good coverage in the Irish Times.
Listen to all the proceedings at
http://www.ean.ie/2007/ean-conference-2007-part-1/ for session one (Focusing resources) and
http://www.ean.ie/2007/ean-conference-2007-part-2/ for session two (Strengthening ties with the Irish abroad).
New board members
At the AGM, we added three new members to our board: Ellen Stagg, Paschal Mooney and Sr Attracta Heneghan. We are delighted to welcome them to our board and I'm looking forward to working with them in the future.
Annual
Report
The annual report has been sent out to all the members by post. If you didn't receive a copy, it probably means we've got an incorrect or out-of-date postal address for you - let me know at noreen@emigrantnetwork.ie and I'll update our records.
The annual report is also online. You can
also download it from our website at
http://www.ean.ie/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/annual-report-07-1.pdf.
Any comments? Drop a line to Noreen@emigrantnetwork.ie. Also let me know if there's any other issue you'd like more information on!
CSO Statistics
The latest statistics from the CSO show that high rates of immigration
continued into the year ending April 2007. Interestingly, however, the
figures also showed that the rate of emigration stood at 42,000,
considerably higher than in recent years. This left Ireland with a net
migration rate of 67,300, down from last year's high of 78,800.
The rate of emigration hasn't been over 40,000 since 1990; the
CSO figures, however, do not show how many of those emigrants were
foreign nationals returning home. However, 7,000 of those who left went
to a destination in one of the 12 new states of the European Union, up
dramatically from 2,300 in 2006 and 800 in 2005; presumably many of
those would have been returning nationals of those countries.
Over 10,000 of those emigrants travelled to the UK, while 3,200 went to the rest of the EU 15. 2,900 went to the US. 19,000 went to the rest of the world.
See the entire publication from the CSO at
http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/population/current/popmig.pdf
On our
website
Stay on top of emigrant-related news and media in
Ireland
through our Newswatch section
on our website. Through this blog-style feature we
track media articles related to emigrants, with brief posts and links
to additional information.
Here are links to a few of the latest articles:
- Exhibition on Irish in Europe opens
- No recognition for gay couples a barrier to return
- Irish/US abductions the highest rate in world?
- Irish
Times carries report on Ean seminar
- UCD institute to focus on Diaspora
- Tradition informs work of Chicago emigrant
- Irish farmers heading for New Zealand?
- Awards system would include Diaspora
- Over 1600 Irish refused benefits under HRC
- Ean quoted in Irish Echo story on US-Ireland Forum
- US-Ireland Forum focuses on relations
The Newswatch
section is updated several times a week.
Feel
free to send on suggestions!
Feedback
We welcome your feedback! Drop a line to noreen@emigrantnetwork.ie
with your comments or questions.
To unsubscribe, send the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body
of an
email to news-request@ean.ie.
To subscribe, send the word SUBSCRIBE in the body of an email to news-request@ean.ie.
Ean - Ireland's emigrant network
www.ean.ie