We will need continuing immigration to balance the generations and provide for the health and social care needs of the future. Photograph: iStock
For the past 250 years migration from and to Ireland has been driven by individuals seeking a better standard of living and new opportunities.
From the early 19th century, emigration was central to Irish life until Ireland joined the then European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973. In the 1970s, for the first time in centuries, there was net immigration amounting to 0.3 per cent of the population each year as emigrants returned.
The past 35 years have seen further big changes in the pattern of migration, still driven by the differences in living standards here and abroad.
In 1992, Patrick Honohan quantified the lev
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