Issues and Challenges in the Recruitment and Selection of ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Employment Services (LES) although some of these make their drop-ininformation services available to all. At local level, many communityorganisations have begun to address the gap in labour market servicesfor some categories of immigrants and some peer led migrant groups arealso involved in supporting their members..1.5 Immigrants in the Labour Market and Workforce inIrelandIrish immigration has been characterized by three features which are relativelyunique: the speed with which it has occurred; the profile of immigrants to Ireland;and the coincidence of immigration with a period of rapid economic growth.• Between 2002 and 2006, the percentage of non-Irish born peopleliving in Ireland increased from just under 6 per cent to 10 per cent. Thisrate of immigration is rare: in the UK, the foreign born population grewby just 2 percentage points in the thirty years between 1960 and 1990.In absolute terms, there were 419,733 non-Irish born people among thepopulation in 2006 (Census, 2006) and this is estimated to have reached491,500 in the first quarter of 2008 (QNHS, 2008). The largest singlegrouping of immigrants (over 216,000) is from the ten states admittedto the EU in 2004 (EU10): including 63,276 Polish people, (a figure thatis widely viewed as a serious under-estimation) of whom almost 90 percent had arrived since 2004. Over 100,000 were people from Africa andAsia: among the former are 16,300 Nigerians (increased by 82% since2002), while among the latter are 11,161 Chinese people (up 91% since2002).• Immigrants to Ireland tend to be younger than the indigenous populationand to be better educated. In effect, Ireland has succeeded in attractingwell educated prime age workers, in marked contrast to the experiencesof some other countries, such as the USA (Barrett et al, 2006). A highstandard of education has been a consistent feature of immigrantsto Ireland since the mid-1990s (Minns, 2005, Barrett et al, 2006) andthe most recent census data suggests this is ongoing. In particular,immigrants are much more likely to have third level education or highercompared to their Irish counterparts. However, the data also indicate thedegree of diversity within ethnic groups with regard to education: withthe exception of non-Chinese Asians, the proportion of ethnic groups withonly second level education is on a par with the Irish born population.16Issues and Challenges in the Recruitment and Selection of Immigrant Workers in Ireland
• The coincidence of immigration with the economic boom since the mid1990s is reflected in (a) the fact that the vast majority of immigrantsto Ireland are economic migrants from the EEA and (b) the high rate ofincorporation into the work force amongst immigrants. Both these areevidenced by channels of migration (NESC, 2006a), applications for workpermits, official statistics and research. The desire to find work, to augmentqualifications and language skills or to save money have been identifiedby research as the predominant reasons for coming to Ireland and thefindings are consistent across different contexts and national groups: closeto three quarters of immigrants in studies state work or career relatedreasons as their chief motivation in coming to Ireland (Fitzgerald, 2008,MRCI 2007a, Kropiwiec, 2006). For some, this was linked to aspirations toreturn home in better circumstances (Kropiwiec, 2006) but other researchsuggests that substantial proportions of immigrants plan to stay inIreland (Ruhs, 2005). In terms of their economic incorporation, immigrantsmade up 16 per cent of the Irish labour force at the end of 2007, up from3 per cent in 1997 (FÁS, 2008). Census data also shows that less than 7 percent of EU 10 immigrants were not in the labour force in 2006 comparedto almost 40 per cent of Irish nationals. Among non-EU immigrantshowever almost one third were not in the labour force.1.6 The Well-Being of Immigrants on the Irish LabourMarketWhen one moves away from the aggregate statistics on immigrants, the degreeof diversity amongst different groupings become clear. Census data showsconsiderable variation between the employment situation of immigrants onthe basis of nationality and ethnicity. In particular, the variation in the economicstatus of EU and non EU immigrants has led some to refer to a bi-polar dynamicin immigrant employment (Krings, 2007). The rate of unemployment amongstimmigrants also varies: while the overall rate amongst immigrants is higherthan amongst the indigenous population, it is particularly high amongst those ofBlack origin, of whom over one quarter were returned as unemployed in the 2006Census. Since then, unemployment amongst foreign nationals has continued toincrease (to over six per cent, considerably higher than the 3.9 per cent for Irishnationals (FÁS, 2007) and the increase was particularly marked amongst workersfrom the EU10 where the numbers on the Live Register quadrupled from 3,000 atthe end of 2006 to 13,000 one year later.Since this research has been completed unemployment has continued to riseand there has been a dramatic increase in the numbers of Irish and non – Irishnationals on the Live Register.17
Page 2: 2Issues and Challenges in the Recru
Page 7: Chapter 1Exploring the Recruitment
Page 10 and 11: persecution. Economic migrants enco
Page 12 and 13: • The third group is the so-calle
Page 14 and 15: • Green Cards, which have replace
Page 18 and 19: Unemployment is not the only issue
Page 20 and 21: Overall, both official statistics a
Page 22 and 23: issues from the perspective of thes
Page 24 and 25: and facilitate integration and, equ
Page 26 and 27: Chapter 2Looking for work in Irelan
Page 28 and 29: and longer term aspirations with th
Page 30 and 31: In terms of public sector 6 employm
Page 32 and 33: immigrant communities have come to
Page 34 and 35: on courses they do not want to do a
Page 36 and 37: 2.6.1 Communication issuesAmong the
Page 38 and 39: • There was also the view that Ir
Page 40 and 41: • Freedom of movement for the cit
Page 42 and 43: • what they see as the reluctance
Page 44 and 45: are employed. By the end of the sec
Page 46 and 47: large organisations are more likely
Page 48 and 49: other occupations such as youth wor
Page 50 and 51: at 24 per cent (and just 22 per cen
Page 52 and 53: Other mechanisms to recruit foreign
Page 54 and 55: In large volume recruitment campaig
Page 56 and 57: Innovation in the use of testsIrish
Page 58 and 59: 3.2.7 VettingThe vetting of candida
Page 60 and 61: that considered foreign workers to
Page 62 and 63: Chapter 4Conclusions and Discussion
Page 64 and 65: of recruitment should be more integ
Page 66 and 67:
Table 4.1:Divergent views of Employ
Page 68 and 69:
Perceive written andlanguage based
Page 70 and 71:
as either a basis for determining e
Page 72 and 73:
It is reasonable to assume that in
Page 74 and 75:
Of more specific relevance to the c
Page 76 and 77:
public sector employers) as well as
Page 78 and 79:
BibliographyBarrett, A and Y McCart
Page 80:
O’Connell, P and F McGinnity (200
Page 84:
Public Appointments ServiceChapter
show all

Issues and Challenges in the Recruitment and Selection of ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?