Espaces et échanges anglais

Spaces and exchanges

I’m going to talk about the notion of « spaces and exchanges ». First of all I would like to give a definition of this notion. “Spaces and exchanges” deals with the geographical and symbolic areas that all societies occupy and the interactions between men and different societies. Trade, emigration, wars and disasters have influenced the world as we know it today. The different cultural, economic, sociological and language interactions have shaped and characterized our modern world. Among the whole of the propositions offered by this notion, I chose to speak about economy and migration. How has Ireland’s economy impacted migration?

First, we will see the economic situation of Ireland from the mid of nineteenth century and the link with the various migrations. Finally we will see the evolution of Ireland.

1. Economy and migration:

Ever since the mid-nineteenth century, Ireland has experienced successive waves of emigration triggered by high unemployment but also poverty, lack of opportunity and even famine like “The Great Famine “ from eighteen-forty-five to eighteen-forty-nine.                                                                                                             As unemployment was very high and there was a feeling no future was possible in Ireland, many young people went to work in mostly manual jobs in England. When people can't find work no matter how hard they try they are bound to feel they have no other option but to emigrate. Sometimes they may have a job but they are so badly paid that it is difficult to make ends meet, so emigration can be a solution.                                                                                                                  Born in Ireland, Bernard Canavan emigrated from Ireland to live in London in the nineteen-sixty’s. His painting, entitled “Emigrant Journey” is a triptych. Each panel depicts a scene while all three scenes are connected by a road that runs through the three panels. The people in all three panels are probably emigrants who are leaving their homeland to go and work in Britain because we see the departure of a population from a modest village to a big city. This painting defines well migrations of the Irish to the USA, Britain and Australia.

1. The evolution of Ireland:

Towards the end of the nineteen’s Ireland’s economy was growing rapidly. This growth must have helped to reduce unemployment which had fallen to under six percent by nineteen ninety-nine. Foreign companies such as Dell set up in Ireland and created thousands of jobs. In fact there was so much work that foreigners were needed to fill all the positions. Meanwhile Irish people must have been able to stay at home to find a job instead of emigrating. This led to a rise in the need for housing which in turn generated a building boom.

During the boom the Ireland’s economy knows a strong growth which gives the expression of Celtic Tiger.

Ireland became an attractive for foreign companies because it had a young, very educated, highly-skilled, English-speaking workforce used to on wages, there were special tax breaks and rents were much cheaper in Ireland than in England.

The subprime crisis in the USA in two thousand seven caused a global economic crisis which started in two thousand eight. It was one on the first countries to be affected. Ireland was particularly fragile because of its reliance on credit and its inflated property bubble.                                                                                           Unemployment shot up between two thousand eight and two thousand ten and in the same time, house prices plummeted.

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