Short-term low-skilled labour migration has increased internationally during the past two decades of rapid economic growth, in response to deficiencies in local labour supply in developed countries. Ireland was one of the newer states to recruit labour internationally on a large scale from the late 1990s until the global economic downturn in 2008. Various forms of short-term migration, as well as both documented and undocumented employment, followed. This paper discusses the experience of Brazilian migrants in Ireland who assume particular interest because of being a new migration stream over a great distance, which involved relatively short sojourns in Ireland for many before returning to Brazil. Changing government work permit policies for non-European Economic Area citizens, European Union enlargement, and economic recession all contributed to reduce the opportunities for legal employment in Ireland. This paper is based on research with workers who were initially recruited for the agricultural processing sector in two small towns in western Ireland through an existing link with the province of Goiás in Brazil. The evidence differs from some other studies of international labour migration in that data collection took place in both Ireland and Brazil. It highlights in particular the vulnerability of short-term migrants to labour policies and the economy in host countries.
This chapter provides new information relating to aspects of transnational migration among high-skilled Lebanese migrants from a dual country perspective; that of the sending country, Lebanon, and of the receiving country, Kuwait. By using a dual, home and host country perspective, the chapter shows a more complete picture of some specific aspects of transnational migration, in particular, the motivations and drivers of migration, and why migrants chose Kuwait as a destination, as opposed to other GCC countries. It then explores aspects of integration and socialization to first identify the Lebanese in Kuwait who, according to this research sample, are integrated into Kuwaiti society, and to see if a transnational community was formed among and between other Lebanese in Kuwait. The chapter proceeds to explore temporal aspects of migration to discover how long migrants plan on staying in Kuwait as well as presenting data on returned migrants and the reason for their return to Lebanon. Finally, it explores remittances, which form a key feature of transnationalism.
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