The multiple experiences of migrancy, Irishness and home among contemporary Irish immigrants in Melbourne, Australia

This study examines the experiences of post-1980 Irish immigrants in Australia usingGreater Melbourne as a case study. It has three main but interrelated objectives.Firstly, it establishes the origins, characteristics, dynamics and outcomes ofcontemporary Irish migration to Australia. Secondly, it explores informants’ multipleexperiences of Irishness in both Ireland and Australia. Thirdly, it examines howmigrancy and identity issues were related to informants’ sense of belonging and home.Identity is approached in this study from a constructivist perspective. Accordingly,identity is conceptualised as dynamic, subject to situational stimuli and existing injuxtaposition to a constructed ‘other’. Prior to migration, a North/South,Protestant/Catholic ‘other’ provided the bases for identity constructions in Ireland. Theexperiences of immigrants from both Northern and Southern Ireland are examined sothat the multiple pre- and post-migration experiences of Irishness can be captured.Face-to-face interviews with 203 immigrants provide the study’s primary data.Migration motivation was found to be multifactorial and contained a strong element ofadventure. Informal chain migration, based on relationship linkages in Australia, wasimportant in directing flows and meeting immigrants’ post-arrival accommodationneeds. Only 28 percent of the sample initially saw their move as permanent and onethirdwere category jumpers.A consolidation of Irish identity occurred post-migration. This was most pronouncedamong Northern Protestants and was largely predicated on informants’ perceptions ofhow Britishness and Irishness were constructed in Australia. For Northern respondents,the freedom to express Irishness may have masked an enforced Irishness that evolvedin response to perceived negative constructions of Britishness, and their experiences ofhomogenisation with Southern immigrants. Hierarchies within white privilege inAustralia, based on origin and accent, were indicated by the study findings.Movement and identity were related through the transnational practices of informants.Separation from familial and friendship networks prompted high levels of returnvisitation and telephone contact with their homeland, establishing the group as a highlytransnational in relational terms.Examining the experiences of this invisible immigrant group through a constructionistlens contributed to the broader understanding of whiteness, transnationalism and theIrish diaspora generally