Explaining recent trends in international protection applications in Ireland

Abstract

is a senior research officer at the ESRI. Frances McGinnity is an associate research professor at the ESRI, adjunct professor at Trinity College Dublin and visiting senior fellow at the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics. Kayla Rush was an information officer in EMN Ireland at the ESRI.Predicting trends in applications into the future is difficult, and trends are largely dependent on the actions and responses of various actors, including governments in countries of origin and first asylum, international actors, other countries in the region and the Irish government. Some drivers are likely to be temporary (e.g., the COVID effect, the initial displacement from Ukraine and the impact of labourmarket shortages if proposed employment-permit reforms are adopted). Others may be longer-term (e.g., network effects, changing smuggler routes and potential deflection effects from the UK). The acknowledgement that factors driving international protection applications are largely outside the control of national governments means that flexible reception systems are key.Further research needs to be conducted to better understand the reasons behind the recent increase in applications in Ireland, including interviews with asylum applicants. There is a lack of research specific to the Irish context on this subject, meaning that the literature review had to draw conclusions from other contexts. Further research should examine the experiences of asylum applicants travelling to Ireland and applying for asylum here, and should conduct a more in-depth examination of Ireland in the context of broader EU trends.1 Figures for July, August and September 2022 are also included in this report, although the analysis remains focused on the first six months of 2022.

Comparing migrant integration in Ireland and Northern Ireland

“…For figures on Northern Ireland see: NISRA (2020 When looking at more recent figures, as of 30 September 2022, there were 1,710 asylum applicants (and persons whose appeals avenues were exhausted) receiving supports in Northern Ireland, marking an increase as compared to previous years. 9 This is in line with an increase seen in both the UK and Ireland (Cunniffe et al, 2022). In Ireland, as of 12 October 2022, there were 15,983 people resident in International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) centres.…”

Labour market integration of international protection applicants in Ireland

“…The number of applications only returned to pre-pandemic levels in August 2021. The year 2022 was different to previous years (Cunniffe et al, 2022), with 13,651 applications lodged across the whole year. 19 This marked an increase of 286 per cent on 2019, the most recent year not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, when 4,781 international protection applications were lodged.…”

Monitoring report on Integration 2022

“…97 Net migra5on stayed posi5ve in the years 2020-2022, yet there was a notable dip in migra5on in 2020 and 2021, which was followed by a marked increase in inward migra5on in 2022. This likely largely reflects the impact of the COVID-19 related restric5ons and border closures, with 2022 figures represen5ng a 'catch-up' effect (see also Cunniffe et al, 2022), unless of course these higher numbers persist beyond 2022.…”

“…As of 16 February 2023, 5,040 people with interna5onal-protec5on status were s5ll living in IPAS (Interna5onal Protec5on Accommoda5on Services) accommoda5on, represen5ng 26 per cent of the total (19,741). 100 An addi5onal issue is the capacity to respond to changes in the numbers of refugees and interna5onal-protec5on applicants, which implies greater flexibility in housing stock may be required (Cunniffe et al, 2022). Taken together, these findings underscore the importance of including housing in the successor to the Migrant Integra5on Strategy 2017-2021 as a maMer of urgency, though, of course, addressing major challenges more broadly in the Irish housing market will benefit migrants too (see also McGinnity et al, 2022).…”

“…More recently, separate detailed analy5c reports have been produced to complement the indicators in the Monitoring Reports on Integra5on and to provide a more comprehensive assessment of migrant integra5on. These topics include the residen5al concentra5on of migrants (Fahey et al, 2019), ci5zenship acquisi5on , COVID-19 and foreign na5onals (Enright et al, 2020) and, more recently, housing and family (McGinnity et al, 2022), wages and working condi5ons (Laurence et al, 2023) and trends in interna5onal-protec5on applica5ons (Cunniffe et al, 2022). Future Monitoring Reports might consider some expanding of scope, reorienta5on or incorpora5ng migrants themselves in the selec5on of indicators through a consulta5on process (Gilmar5n and Dagg, 2021;McGinnity, Russell et al, 2021).…”