This document discusses spatial justice and emigration from Ireland. It notes that while many saw high emigration in the 1950s as normal, others felt it was driven by economic constraints. More recently, emigration is more voluntary as the emigrants are highly educated youth seeking opportunities abroad. The concept of "spatial justice" and how spaces are produced socially is discussed as a framework for understanding emigration patterns. While useful, spatial factors alone do not determine who emigrates - class, gender, ethnicity and other social factors are also important predictors. A multifaceted approach is needed to understand the cultural, geographic, economic and policy drivers of emigration and its impacts.

1. SPATIAL JUSTICE AND THE IRISH CRISIS
Choice, constraint, spatial justice and Irish
(e)migration
Piaras Mac Éinrí

2. Peadar O’Donnell and Éamon De ValeraPeadar O Donnell and Éamon De Valera
Peadar O’Donnell told the tale of deValera ringing him
up after Peadar had written an angry article about how a
million people had had to emigrate. Dev told him that
if h P d h d b i illi ld heven if he, Peadar, had been in power a million would have
had to emigrate. Peadar, however, replied:“Ah, maybe, but
it wouldn’t have been the same million”it wouldn t have been the same million.

3. Hi R i I lf?History Repeating Itself?

4. Realities of emigration in IrelandRealities of emigration in Ireland
Many in Ireland had long persuaded themselves that emigration was normal, and
adjusted without undue discomfort to the emigrant wave of the fifties.The Leader
b d h l l l d h d b d b hobserved that many politicians were privately more relieved than disturbed by the
postwar emigration because ‘If emigration were to be stopped tomorrow
conditions favourable to social revolution might easily arise’.
Many felt that much of the emigration was irrational anyway. James Dillon, who
would become leader of Fine Gael only four months later, had the courage to
express bluntly views normally voiced more discreetly. Dillon contended ‘that a
d l f hi lk b i i i f d d l f hi lk i di hgreat deal of this talk about emigration is fraud, a great deal of this talk is dishonest,
a great deal of the suggestion that emigrants are driven from this country by
economic want is untrue’.The essence of Dillon’s argument was that much
emigration could not be attributed directed to ‘economic want’, but to the desire of
l f h h d h b l d b h lpeople, some of whom had the temerity to be already above the poverty line, to
improve their own condition and even that of their children. Dillon here struck a
not sounded frequently in official commentaries on the causes of emigration. He
equated ‘economic want’ with an unchanging level of physical subsistence, countingq g g p y g
anyone who abandoned a patrimony above this level as a ‘voluntary’ emigrant.The
blame accordingly lay with the emigrants themselves, not with the society they left.
Lee, pp 373-4

5. Brian Lenihan Snr, TD, 1987
What we have now is a very literate emigrant, who thinks
nothing of coming to the United States and going back to Ireland
and maybe on to Germany and back to Ireland again…the world
i ld d h l I l d i his now one world and they can always return to Ireland with
the skills they have developed.We regard them as part of a
global generation of Irish people We shouldn’t be defeatist orglobal generation of Irish people.We shouldn t be defeatist or
pessimistic about it.We should be proud of it.After all, we can’t
all live on a small islandall live on a small island
Newsweek 19 October 1987

6. Irish Net Migration, 1945-2012 (in 000s)
100
120
Population (in millions)
60
80
100
5
Population (in millions)
40
60
4
0
20
3
-40
-20 2
Source: CSO
-80
-60
Source: CSO
Sources:Walter et al. (2002) and CSO (2012).

7. Current Emigration Comparedg p
Who and Why?
Origins and Destinations?
Return Migration?
An outlier or just one of the ‘P.I.I.G.S.’?

8. Is the paradigm of spatial justice applicable to emigration
from Ireland?
Relevance of Soja and the spatial turn

9. Defining spatial equalityDefining spatial equality
Lefebvre
Soja
Youngg
Harvey
FoucaultFoucault
Rights to the cityRights to the city
Building spatial theories of justice
O h W ld S ThOther perspectives:World Systems Theory

10. Is emigration related to spatial justice?Is emigration related to spatial justice?
Old ways of thinking about space only as physical form and
background environment made the notion of socially producedbackground environment made the notion of socially produced
spatial justice and injustice almost incomprehensible.
While the privileging of the historical and the social still
persists, perhaps never before in the past 150 years has a
critical spatial perspective been so widespread and influential.
As the effects of consequential geographies become more
widely understood, many different concepts and subjectwidely understood, many different concepts and subject
matter that had hitherto been rarely seen from a critical
spatial perspective, such as social capital and social justice, are
b i i ifi tl ti li d i t f b th dbeing significantly spatialized in terms of both causes and
effects.

11. Socio spatial dialecticsSocio-spatial dialectics
It is important to stress that seeking spatial justice is not
meant to be a substitute for or alternative to the search formeant to be a substitute for or alternative to the search for
social, economic, or environmental justice. It is intended
instead as a means of amplifying and extending these concepts
into new areas of understanding and political practice Callinginto new areas of understanding and political practice. Calling
it spatial justice is not meant to imply that justice is
determined only by its spatiality, but neither should spatial
justice be seen as just one of many different components orjustice be seen as just one of many different components or
aspects of social justice to be comparatively gauged for their
relative strength.This relativist view misses the point of the
socio spatial dialectic that not only does the social comprisesocio-spatial dialectic, that not only does the social comprise
the spatial, it is also comprised by it. In the view taken here,
everything that is social (justice included) is simultaneously and
i h tl ti l j t thi ti l t l t ith dinherently spatial, just as everything spatial, at least with regard
to the human world, is simultaneously and inherently
socialized.

12. Urban or all encompassing?Urban or all-encompassing?
Reflecting the introductory comments of Erik Swyngedouw,
urbanization and the urban condition will figure centrally inurbanization and the urban condition will figure centrally in
Seeking Spatial Justice. It should be emphasized, however, that
the impressive impact of urbanization is not confined to the
formal administrative boundaries of the city The urbanizationformal administrative boundaries of the city.The urbanization
process and along with it what can be called the urbanization
of (in)justice are generated primarily in and from dense urban
agglomerations but in the present age of acceleratingagglomerations, but in the present age of accelerating
globalization the urban condition has extended its influence to
all areas: rural, suburban, metropolitan, exurban, even
wilderness parkland desert tundra and rain forest In thiswilderness, parkland, desert, tundra, and rain forest. In this
sense, the whole world has been or is being urbanized to
some degree, making the search for spatial justice relevant at
diff t hi l l f th t l b l t thmany different geographical scales, from the most global to the
most local, and everywhere in between.

13. After Soja, it will no longer be possible to benignly
disregard or deliberately occlude the spatial dimension of
justice
Mendieta, Eduardo CityVol 15, no 1, Feb 2011.

14. Discourses of emigration in IrelandDiscourses of emigration in Ireland
Choice v constraint:‘lifestyle choice’ or the return of the
coffin ships?
Who is most likely to leave?
Who is least likely to stay?y y
What are the spatial dimensions of these patterns?

15. How useful is ‘spatial justice’?How useful is spatial justice ?
The NESC survey found that the majority of recent
emigrants were aged between fifteen and twenty-four
years when they left the country…The NESC survey
f d h 26% f h 11 300 hi d l l d i ifound that 26% of the 11,300 third-level award recipients
who left full-time education in 1988 had left Ireland by
the following Springthe following Spring.
The impact of globalisation

16. Small Area Clusters
1: Sparsely populated rural areas (21%)
2:Affluent suburbs (19%)
3 D l l t d b ith hi h3: Densely populated urban areas with a high
concentration of young professionals (7%)
4: Established areas with mature populations &
high household ownership (24%)
5: Densely populated areas with a high
ti f h h ld t d f l l th it (12%)proportion of households rented from a local authority (12%)
6: Young families with mortgages living mainly in newer6: Young families with mortgages living mainly in newer
houses (17%)

21. Conclusions: it’s complicatedConclusions: it s complicated
Relatively affluent and better educated are more likely to
leave
The less well qualified may be more likely to stay, a factor
exacerbated by globalisation
An exception: emigration from sparsely populated rural
areas
Class, gender and ethnicity are all better predictors than
spatiality

22. Towards a framework to understanding
emigration and its impactsemigration and its impacts
Cultural factors:‘historically embedded’ tradition of emigrationCultural factors: historically embedded tradition of emigration
Geographical factors: accessibility of large next-door labour
market
Social factors: an intriguing difference between Spanish and
Irish behaviour
E f l b l f l b lEconomic factors: employability in an age of globalisation
Policy factors
P h l i l f t ilt d i l i ti h d?Psychological factors: guilt, denial, victimhood?