How's the immigrant life in Ireland these days?

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bigmacy2443@reddit

Ill be brutally honest with you for your own sake and safety stay out of Dublin best you can move to the south where people are much more welcoming to Americans while you get to see the nice parts of the island areas like cashel,fermoy, kilkenny city or waterford city are all ideal places depending on your preference and situation comming from somone who is originally from the south

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thepageofswords@reddit

Do you have citizenship or a job offer? Have you seen housing costs and what you get for your money housing wise?

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

Hi! We do not currently have citizenship or a job offer. We're more in the stage of educating ourselves about the country itself before we pursue anything. We have done research on housing costs & value and are at least aware of what that looks like.

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North_Artichoke_6721@reddit

Your best chance, in my opinion, is to find a company that has an office in Ireland and an office in your own country. Apply to work for them in your own country and prove that you’re a good employee who is worth their investment and then ask for a transfer.

Everything is easier if you have a company sponsoring you, from the visa to the logistics of getting your furniture to another country.

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

I appreciate the info! We aren't quite ready to make the jump to move before we have a more well rounded perspective of the country, but this info is super helpful nonetheless!

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x0_Kiss0fDeath@reddit

The problem is, by the time you've worked out what the "well rounded view" is, you've lost time. And by the time you've found your path to getting visas for 4 of you simultaneously let along put the wheels in motion, the well rounded view you've gained may have now shifted (especially in the fast moving political climate of the world today). So while you're not focusing on the how currently, be aware that you are going to be burning time that you could be using to put yourself in a better position for if you do decide you want to try to make the move whatever way you csn.

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

Hey totally understand that and appreciate your tone of voice. We have our process and truthfully I don't plan on explaining that to strangers on the internet. My question was pretty straight forward and regardless of our motives we were curious about the "now" experience for immigrants in Ireland. It was possible for people to share their experiences (see comments in thread) without probing me on how I was going to move there or what OUR plans were. If I was looking for advice for my personal experience then I would've asked that. But if you read my post I asked about OTHERS experience. I understand their experience can absolutely be different than ours, but anecdotal evidence still holds some weight.

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x0_Kiss0fDeath@reddit

To be clear, I wasn't asking nor needing your explanation for your plan, so i'm glad you don't plan on doing so. I wss merely trying to explain from the POV of an american immigrant who moved to a similar country why others keep bringing it back to the importance of your visa route (because if you don't have a realistic plan for your route, the current political climate and sentiment about immigrants as it stands today is as useful to you as a set of paper pants). People aren't ignoring your question, they're using their wealth of knowledge anx first hand experience to try to help you make sure you're focused on what's most important about this process so you don't put the horse in front of the cart and waste time for nothing. Appreciate you have a set idea for what you feel is the best approach to immigrating though and nobody here will convince you to consider otherwise. Good luck - I hope it works out for you wherever and whenever it might happen.

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

And that advice is wonderful, truly it is, but I didn't ask for it. Unsolicited advice is still just that - unsolicited. I came here asking a specific question that I wanted answered. Whether anyone else deems it 'useful' for us or not I'm still allowed to ask the question and have it answered. Especially without getting backhanded comments on information about myself or my group that's not necessary to know for the question I asked. I could've lied and said we all already have visas and job offers. Nobody would be the wiser and the only thing that seems to change for some commenters on this thread is whether or not they think I deserve an answer to my question. Which is silly considering a handful of people were able to answer without asking me for a lick of information about my/our situation. I understand where youre coming from and genuinely appreciate the sentiment though. Thank you.

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leowdutch@reddit

they weren’t asking how to move there

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HVP2019@reddit

If you want what protesters are thinking you may want to ask those who are protesting.

You know they speak English in Ireland and they use social media there too.

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

I understand that. I actually tried to ask in the more Ireland specific subreddits and the posts were denied in multiple groups as not being allowed due to the nature of the post. We've done some of our research on YouTube watching vlogs and searching through posts/comments on Instagram, but outside of there and Reddit I am not familiar with where else to search for answers. Any suggestions?

Additionally, while I am very interested in hearing from the side of the protestors themselves on this post specifically I was hoping to hear from immigrants themselves about how day to day life is.

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HVP2019@reddit

Why Ireland?

It is Western developed country it has all the same issues as all the other western countries. The difference between western countries are marginal. You may hear that one country is on average has been a little bit better in one person’s experience but it doesn’t mean that this will be true in another location or that this will not change with time

I am an immigrant in US. I can tell you honestly that my life in US has been calm, comfortable, safe but another immigrant in US will have different experience even if we are of the same age and are from the same country originally.

My life would be OK in Ireland as well. I have friends immigrants in UK, Netherlands, Italy, Canada and Portugal and our lives were similarly good.

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

We are considering a number of countries - some in the EU and some in the Americas. Our interest in Ireland is based on a number of things from healthcare, education, work/life balance, quality of life, to just general desire to explore the world. We are all U.S. citizens (born & raised) and have decided that life in the U.S. isn't that is fulfilling our needs. Nowhere you go in the world is perfect, but we are looking around to see if another country might be a better fit for us.

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HVP2019@reddit

Well if no one in the world is perfect (this is true) there is no reason for you to focus on Ireland. Any other western country has sufficient healthcare, education, and decent quality of life compared to less wealthy, less developed countries.

Sure, some country will have somewhat better healthcare during some period, in some part of the country. Another country may have somewhat better educational opportunities during another period.

As I already illustrated by my personal experience as an immigrant in US: I have been very satisfied with US healthcare, i educated 3 children who have amazing employment opportunities with quite satisfactory life work balance.

I am NOT telling you this to try to convince you that US is better than any other western developed country. I am telling you this to illustrate how subjective everyone opinions are, and how personal circumstances, location, empowerment, choices of where to live and where to work matters a lot.

Ireland is as good as any other western country. So if you want to leave US pick western country you have the highest chance of moving. THAT will be your biggest challenge

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

Thanks for being so invested in our journey. I'll make sure to share your opinions with everyone else in the group even though it didn't answer my original question :P

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HVP2019@reddit

Did you notice that most of the responses do not answer your question. Can you guess why?

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Upbeat-Pace2984@reddit

On top of what everyone has said, have you been here? I'm not saying it's terrible but I'm counting on the days for my citizenship and then I'll GTFO. There's not much to do in here compare to the EU continent, housing is disastrous. I'm in my late 20s and live in Ireland for the rest of my life scares me. But you do you.

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

Thanks for your input! I truly appreciate it. We have not been there yet. We are in the stage where we want to learn more about the country before we decide to pursue anything (including visiting unless it's for tourism purposes). We've done extensive research about housing, healthcare, crime, etc but what we're interested in learning about now is the daily life.

We heard about the immigration pushback and decided to learn more since we don't want to put any more strain on an already overloaded system and we want to feel (for the most part) welcome/safe wherever we decide to move.

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Ok_Place1431@reddit

You won't be actively welcomed, particularly, anywhere in the world. If you're contributing economically and making an effort to fit in, you'll be treated with indifference at best and the onus will be very much on you to do all the hard work of integration, adapting to social norms, making the first move to cultivate a social life and hopefully friendships etc. Speaking from experience here - there's no red carpet.

I see a lot of Americans on these subs with long list of economic and cultural expectations which include being actively welcomed, rapid acceptance, "building community" and what have you and then being disappointed that everyone doesn't want to be their friend. Ireland is a friendly, chatty, easygoing country, as a rule, and a softer landing than most, at least for English speakers - but any adult who is new to any country is going to find it a struggle to establish a social network when everyone else already has one.

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

Totally understand. We are by under no means expecting a golden entry into any country we're looking at. However there is truth in that some countries are better than others when it comes to integration, particularly as a POC. We have full intent to not just "escape" the U.S. but build the kind of life we want to see for ourselves in a country that upholds our values more and offers us more opportunities. That being said, how are we going to know what life is like in another country without asking? :)

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Th3LastBastion@reddit

By visiting it. Your perspective and expectations will likely be different from the locals anywhere you go as you're coming from a different place. You'll appreciate things they don't or take for granted and be put off by things that are part of their normal, everyday life.

Go there. If it's for you, do your homework and find a way to make it happen. Be prepared for that to take years and a substantial financial investment.

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

Solid response to my rhetorical question. We would OF COURSE visit Ireland first before making the final decision to move there. That was always the plan (not that I'm required to explain our process to anyone). But once again, to reiterate since it seems to keep being missed, I am NOT asking for advice on whether the move is feasible, how to move there, or if it's a good move for me or my family/friends. The post is asking about what it's like to be an imigrant living there during what seems to be a pretty strong immigration push back. I've asked in this subreddit specifically because it's to get the experience & perspective of immigrants.

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drizzler2345@reddit

I think you’d be fine if your whyt

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

My group is a group of 4 where 3 of us are whyt and one of us is a POC. Could you please elaborate on the life of a POC in Ireland please? That was another aspect we were trying to look into, but couldn't get a straight answer.

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drizzler2345@reddit

No disrespect or racism here just the first world atm definitely is very tired of there country’s just opening the doors wide open and putting random people from bad country’s over there own citizens so if your mate looks like one of those people. He definitely might struggle a bit more or face harsher criticism for sure even if he is a good dude. Best of luck

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

Thank you for your honest answer to my question!

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outtahere416@reddit

How do the four of you plan on moving to Ireland all together? If you don’t all already have EU citizenship, the chances of all four getting sponsored for work visas are close to zero.

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

I appreciate the reality check! So our situation is that 2 of us want to pursue student visas, one of us works remote and would continue to do so if we moved, and the last is the only one looking for a traditional work visa.

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breadit124@reddit

Bear in mind the remote worker would need to be married to the person obtaining a critical skills work visa (you cannot bring a spouse on a student visa and they cannot move over themselves without citizenship or a path to a residence permit). They would also need to resign salaried employment and work as an independent contractor/consultant for their US based employer, or get their employer to contract with an employer of record service in Ireland. This is because you cannot legally work for an entity without an Irish presence.

Hoping the two student visa applicants understand they can only work 20hrs/week too, and will have to leave after graduation unless they find employment that will sponsor them for a work permit.

The idea of four people pulling off separate immigration paths to Ireland in conjunction with each other sounds really challenging tbh but I wish you all the luck. It’s a great place to live.

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Redd_Oak@reddit

So you have not answered anything remotely close to what OP has asked? Not sure how you’ve come to this conclusion considering you don’t know shit about their situation but hey nice job on proving useless info 👍🏼

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ibitmylip@reddit

dude chill out

people come here looking for advice, not for insults. yeah, some of them are naive and/or unprepared but that’s no reason to insult them

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Redd_Oak@reddit

Ok so provide useful info.?? Don’t just belittle someone for asking questions 🤣

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Ok_Place1431@reddit

By what means do you think four unrelated adults can move as a group to any country? Each of you will need to seek a separate visa pathway.

These are: ancestry, marriage, student, worker, very high value investor. Some of those routes permit spouse and minor dependents. Some don't. None let you move as a group with your friends. Doing research is all very well, but you do need to start from a realistic premise, if you are serious about this.

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

I hear you! Our group actually consists of 2 married couples. The other couple are looking to pursue student visas, my husband works remote from the US and would continue to do so if we moved, and I would be the only one looking to obtain a traditional work visa. We understand that all 4 of us getting certain visas would be extreamly difficult, but given the circumstances we figured it might be a little bit easier and less impossible this way.

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Ok_Place1431@reddit

Your husband could not simply continue to work his remote job. There is no digital nomad visa for Ireland. Either his employer needs to have (or set up) an Irish registered office and comply with all local employment and tax laws, or use a local employer of record.

You and your husband are on your own with this one - you cannot reasonably expect to tie your emigration pathway to your friends. You have no legal ties to them and you are limiting your opportunities by doing so. As students, they won't have a path to permanent residency - that only comes with employment and even then, it's a long path.

By law, Irish, EU/EEA and UK candidates are prioritised ahead of you for any job. Employment for third-country nationals (anyone who isn't Irish, EU or UK) is largely limited to either highly qualified roles on the government's occupation shortage list - STEM and medical, mostly - or poorly paid work in the care sector. The situation is similar in other EU/EEA countries - EU/EEA candidates get priority.

Your friends, if they succeed in getting student visas, can only work 20 hours per week. How do they propose to support themselves?

It sounds like you're running from, not running to - this isn't a good thing for you or for the country you end up in.

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

I appreciate all of the insight. You've provided some insight about the digital nomad visa that we were not aware of, however respectfully this post wasn't asking whether the move was feasible or not. I was only inquiring as to how the immigration situation feels as an imigrant there right now.

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Ok_Place1431@reddit

None of which is relevant yet if you haven't even established if your plan is compatible with Irish immigration and employment law and you can actually feasibly move there. Start with the stickied posts on r/movetoireland and the official government immigration portal at www.irishimmigration.ieIrishimmigration.ie

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

I understand that and while I do agree, it can also be said that it doesn't have to be relevant for me or anyone else in my group to want know what the immigrant situation is like in other countries. And its not like you have the full picture of our circumstances? Outside of the little information I've shared nobody knows the full picture of who we are, how much money we have, what jobs we hold, etc. The U.S. also doesn't do a great job in showing us worldly news or even factual news for that matter. Everything has bias, is politically charged, or just isn't readily available. Part of the reason I asked was just out of general curiosity because none of us are looking to be the 'stupid american' without knowledge of what's going on outside our doorstep. Whether we wanna immigrate is allowed to be non factor. That being said I do appreciate the subreddit suggestion and I'll make sure to check that out and share it with my group.

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Subterraniate2@reddit

Do you know about other important things in Ireland such as its climate, infrastructure, health service, availability and cost of accommodation, drug laws, access to/ soothing distance from nightlife, form of government etc etc?

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

Yes! We've all spent the last couple of weeks researching those topics and in the last few days have been presenting the information we've found to eachother. We really aren't trying to enter ANY move (whether it's to Ireland or not) blindly. That's why I created this post. The immigration situation is something that we knew about, but didn't understand fully how it impacted anyone's day to day life other than physically seeing protests.

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slainte2you@reddit

The protests are not local to Dublin. Protests regularly occur in areas of the country that are tapped to house asylum seekers (which are often in more rural areas than Dublin).

I'm white but am part of numerous minority groups. I wouldn't agree with the person who said you'll probably be OK if you're white because I work with a lot of Ukrainian refugees, and most of them are white, but report dealing with anti-immigrant sentiment.

I generally feel safe during everyday life, but I try to keep track of when and where the protests are happening and stay home or avoid those areas when the protests are happening and for at least a couple of hours after they are scheduled to finish. For a period last year, there were weekly anti-immigrant protests about two kilometres from my house, but they eventually died down due to pushback from counterprotestors.

I've had taxi drivers comment things to me such as "all you immigrants come over here to get social welfare," which was especially ironic because for most of the 10+ years I've been in Ireland, I have not been eligible for benefits, and was not when such statements were said to me.

The protest attendees usually have a mixture of anti-immigration + anti-immigrant sentiment towards the immigrants themselves, as well as towards the government for "allowing" so many immigrants to come into the country.

The overall negative sentiments have definitely gotten worse because of the housing crisis because those who are against immigrants often have the perception that immigrants are coming to take/get all the houses (and jobs). Taxi drivers occasionally rant to me that immigrants and/or refugees are required to meet a lower standard than citizens, so are able get everything handed to them or qualify for it relatively easily (which is not true).

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lilspacey33@reddit (OP)

Thank you so much for your comment!! Your thoroughness was super helpful. We want to understand what's happening over there so we can make a well informed decision for ourselves about where to move. Not living in an EU country is somewhat limiting on our ability to know the full scope of things.

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Jolly_Conflict@reddit

lol there’s protests all over - even up North.

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Woodsman15961@reddit

The anti-immigrant sentiment is directed towards African/indian people mostly. You won’t have any issues if you’re from a white country (even if you’re not white)