Statistics show emigrants suffered higher abuse rates and were more prone to alcoholism
New study finds ties between Irish emigration and abuse
A new study has found that some older Irish emigrants may have left the country because they suffered abuse.
According to the Irish Independent,
new research indicates there have been significant differences in the
life experiences of earlier generations of emigrants, with many more
developing problems with alcohol and later feeling socially isolated
when they returned to Ireland.
When the
Economic and Social Research Institute study examined the causes and
consequences of migration amongst Irish people aged 50 or over (most of
whom would have emigrated between the 1950s and the 1980s) it found that
a much higher proportion of these now returned emigrants had suffered
physical or sexual abuse in childhood compared to those who never left
Ireland.
Some 16 percent of men who had
been away for up to a decade had experienced abuse compared with 10
percent of those who never left, while amongst returned female emigrants
it was one in eight, compared with one in 12 of women who remained in
Ireland.
The study found that significantly more male emigrants reported that their parents had had drug or alcohol problems.
Meanwhile,
up to 15 percent of male emigrants reported an alcohol problem compared
with 7.6 percent of men who never left Ireland.
But
female emigrants who stayed away from Ireland for over ten years were
less likely to develop a drink problem than women who stayed, which the
report reportedly said suggested a 'favorable migration experience.'
A
contributing factor may be that for Irish women of earlier generations,
emigration had allowed them a level of economic independence not
available to those who had stayed.
The new study also found worryingly high levels of social isolation amongst emigrants who returned to Ireland.
Some
30 percent of men who remained in Ireland all their lives reported
being socially isolated to some extent, but this rose to between 45
percent and 62 percent of returned emigrants.
The
survey of over 8,000 people aged fifty and over in Ireland found that
24 percent of men and 21 percent of women had lived abroad for at least
six months, while close to half of them had stayed away for at least ten
years.
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