Irish migration to mainland Europe; observations from southern Germany

Initial work in Paris indicates that informal channels play an important role in the migration decision, to the extent that the language barrier diminishes in significance. This supports the authors own observations in various German cities over the past 15yr. The research presented in this chapter forms part of a wider research programme on Irish migration which seeks to examine the factors which lead to migrants' assimilation - or failure to assimilate - into the host society, and to identify the specific needs of migrants in relation to this process. The findings reported here are in the nature of a pilot study on the development and character of Irish communities in selected urban centres of the European mainland, based on case-study material from Munich and Stuttgart, two major destinations of Irish migration. -Author