The Irish faced a dire situation starting in 1845 called the Great Famine, also known as the Irish Potato Famine. One third of Ireland’s population was entirely dependent on the potato as the main source of sustenance, especially for the poor. This staple food made the agrarian economy grow rapidly. However, a common potato disease called potato blight decimated the potato livestock leaving the people with insufficient food supply and less will to remain in their homeland. Emigration skyrocketed at that point and social, political, and economic issues only encouraged people to leave the country.

In contrast to the trend in the 1900’s, the trend in the late 2000’s has been starkly opposite. The Immigration Explorer, a tool on the New York Times website, tells us the migration patterns of various groups to America during an extended time period. Looking at the population of Manhattan, NY in 1890, and 2000, we notice a drastic decrease in the population of foreign born Irish. The population of Manhattan was roughly 1.5 million in both these time periods. The difference is that in 1890, there were 190,418 foreign-born Irish to the 4,147 in 2000. That’s a 98% decrease in the Irish population in New York. Much of this can be attributed to Ireland’s recent economic upturn.

In 1996, Ireland reached its migration “turning point,” making it the last European Union Member State to become a country of net immigration. The main reason being that rapid economic growth created an unprecedented demand for labor across a wide range of sectors, including construction, financial, information technology, and health care. This had a direct impact on the unemployment rate as it fell from a 15% to 3.6% in no time. Ireland had turned from “being a country of emigration to a country of immigration.” The cause of a decrease in Irish immigrants to the US and an increase in emigrants to Ireland is because of this Irish economic prosperity, better known as the “Celtic Tiger” era. This change in the population flow of Ireland is significantly reflected in the Irish immigration trend in the Immigration Explorer. The economic boom in the late 20th century and early 21st century became a major attraction for immigration to Ireland and also helped keep the Irish natives. Thus, there is an apparent decline in the migration of Irish people to America.