Every year, the analysis of migration numbers shows that more people moved to Ireland in 2022 compared to previous years.
The country had many people asking for protection, and lots of people coming to work and study.
More people are taken into the asylum when Ukrainian people are added.
People from Ukraine who are seeking asylum are counted separately because the rules for their asylum are different right now.
The ESRI report uses information from the government.
In 2022, 13,651 people from other countries asked for international protection in Ukraine. This is a big increase of 186% from 2019, when there were fewer travel restrictions because of the pandemic.
The main countries where most applicants came from were Georgia, Algeria, and Somalia. They made up 45% of all applicants.
Before, the ESRI said that the increase in asylum applications was probably because pandemic travel restrictions ended, countries were unstable, people came to the UK instead, and people’s connections to others made them apply for asylum.
People from Ukraine who have had to leave their homes and go to another country because of a difficult situation.
Ukrainian refugees
Between March and December 2022, almost 68,000 people from Ukraine came to Ireland under the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive.
By December 2022, 87% of people who were allowed to stay in the country temporarily were still living there.
The sudden and unexpected increase put a lot of pressure on the resources of the Irish government. They had to take special actions like putting people in tents and using public buildings for temporary housing.
In 2022, almost 40,000 people got permission to work, and most of these permits went to people in the IT sector.
The numbers also show that a lot of work permits were given to people from outside the EU or UK, which was the highest ever.
In 2022, almost 40,000 permits were given out, which is more than twice as many as in 2019, when there were a lot less.
This shows that more types of jobs can now be given work permits in Ireland because there are not many people without jobs.
India had the most people getting permits (15,695, 39%) followed by Brazil (4,304, 11%) and the Philippines (2,203, 6%).
In 2022, the IT sector got the most employment permits (10,382), and health and social work came in second (9,791).
Keire Murphy, who helped write the report, said that migration in Ireland is getting back to normal after travel restrictions, and the number of people coming to Ireland is the same as before or even higher.
She said: “The report shows important changes in 2022 and the challenges that came with them. ”
Housing crisis
The population of the Republic of Ireland grew by almost 98,000 people from April 2022 to April 2023.
That was the largest increase since 2008 and was mostly caused by people moving to the country.
Ireland’s government was already having a hard time finding enough homes for people before more people started moving to the country.
Conservative protesters are having protests at places where asylum seekers live. They are trying to get more people to support them for the elections next year.