Integration or exclusion? Assimilation of non-Irish nationals into the Irish labour market

Using data based on the national Labour Force Survey, we examine the extent to which immigrants coming to Ireland over a twenty-year period from 1998 to 2019 have assimilated into the labour market based on occupational level, education, employment sector, union membership and rates of unemployment. Overall, immigrants enjoyed conditions in the labour market in 1998 at least as good, if not better than, nationals and appeared to be relatively well assimilated. In contrast, immigrants by 2019 were at a disadvantage compared to nationals, indicating reduced levels of assimilation. A plausible explanation for these trends is the shift away from immigrants mainly from the UK and EU15 in 1998 who had similar cultural (and linguistic) and racial/ethnic characteristics, and a move towards immigrants originating mainly from Eastern European countries and the rest of the world in 2019. However, our results show that immigrants from Eastern European countries were the least assimilated group despite their European origin and cultural compatibility with native Irish.