Unemployed told to leave Ireland in desperate move to slash welfare costs

[boiler]

Unemployed told to leave Ireland in desperate move to slash welfare costs

Ireland is asking its citizens to leave the country if they can't find a job in a desperate bid to slash welfare costs. The Irish government has sent letters to approximately 6,000 unemployed people suggesting they should take jobs in other European countries in an effort to reduce unemployment benefits, the Financial Times has reported.

Some of the jobs were poorly paid but came with a "Mediterranean" climate.

An unemployed electrician was encouraged to move to Coventry, while another jobseeker was offered work as a bus driver in Malta.

Dublin defended the move insisting that the positions are voluntary and no one is being forced to leave the country.

Ireland is close to becoming the first euro zone nation to make a successful exit from its international bailout programme after the country's finances collapsed in the 2008 financial crisis.

Unemployment has eased in recent months, falling to its lowest level in four years in November at 12.5 per cent, but youth unemployment remains a problem.

Overall, one in four Irish under 25 is still unemployed.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/unemployed-told-to-leave-ireland-in-desperate-move-to-slash-welfare-costs-9002720.html

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

The amount of people who will decry the capitalist Irish state for this move, whilst not saying anything about forced migration in the former Soviet Union and its satellite states...

[The Jay]

I'm not surprised to be honest. I was expecting this kind of thing to happen eventually. The shittiest part is that this could lead to an upsurge in nationalistic hatred of the working classes of the european nations in excess of what it is already. What I'm saying is that this could be turned into a wedge between workers despite that not being exactly planned that way. I'm referring to conservative media here.

This is from the perspective of an american though. What do you think?

[Full Metal Bolshevik]

Is there any country where youth unemployment is low?

It seems it's sky high everywhere. Is this a first in history?

[blake 3:17]

Is there any country where youth unemployment is low?

It seems it's sky high everywhere. Is this a first in history?

It might well be. It's nuts.

I was at the employment centre a couple of weeks back & the only job we could find I could do -- all the others required driving and I can't drive -- was a half time thing at a retail outlet 2 hours each way by transit.

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

The amount of people who will decry the capitalist Irish state for this move, whilst not saying anything about forced migration in the former Soviet Union and its satellite states...

Totalitarianism = Evil

Democracy = Bliss

RevLeft is looking more and more like RevLib

[Bala Perdida]

Is there any country where youth unemployment is low?

It seems it's sky high everywhere. Is this a first in history?
Personally, I think it has to do with the fact that now you have to be a college graduate with a diploma, or more, in the field your going into. Before, just being a college graduate got you a job. Also the cost to attend college is crazy. This is just one factor in the struggle to get a decent job today.

[blake 3:17]

Personally, I think it has to do with the fact that now you have to be a college graduate with a diploma, or more, in the field your going into. Before, just being a college graduate got you a job. Also the cost to attend college is crazy. This is just one factor in the struggle to get a decent job today.

Before my last job... I could only get work when I left my degrees and diplomas off my resume. Sometimes I'd have to lie and say I wouldn't be finished my degree for a few more years... [meanwhile already having "it"]

I've learnt to leave off my degree and diploma for most jobs I apply for.

Bosses will know I'll sass them and not take stupid split shifts -- in my work that translates into an 11 hour day with maybe 5 waged.

[Bala Perdida]

Yeah, there's a lot of factors that effect the job process. Many companies now run applications and such through software to see if you're even worth replying to. Overall, finding a job is getting harder and harder. Getting educated is getting more costly. It's obvious in this perspective to see how the system is destroying itself.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Totalitarianism = Evil

Democracy = Bliss

RevLeft is looking more and more like RevLib

I really don't get what point you're making here.

I'm not supporting the Irish state, merely telegraphing the inevitable hypocrisy that will swarm this thread.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

I really don't get what point you're making here.

I'm not supporting the Irish state, merely telegraphing the inevitable hypocrisy that will swarm this thread.

It's just as irrelevant and out of the blue as your own comment, so I'd say that, for once, it appears to be quite in line.

[G4b3n]

It's just as irrelevant and out of the blue as your own comment, so I'd say that, for once, it appears to be quite in line.

His comment was hardly irrelevant. Anyone who discourages this action taken by the Irish bourgeoisie but thinks nothing of the forced migration imposed by the soviet bureaucracy is most certainly a hypocrite who cares more for furthering their ideology than they do for the autonomy and freedom of working people.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

Yeah, there's a lot of factors that effect the job process. Many companies now run applications and such through software to see if you're even worth replying to. Overall, finding a job is getting harder and harder. Getting educated is getting more costly. It's obvious in this perspective to see how the system is destroying itself.

I sat next to a hiring manager at a weird birthday dinner for a lady my partner is friends with. He explained to me that his company flat out will not hire someone that is currently unemployed. Doesn't matter what their qualifications are, what their experience level is, just flat out no. His company is large, and he made it sound like it was a pretty standard policy. When I brought up people being laid off for no reasons of their own his response was "everyone has a story, but I'm not interested, its not my job to listen to them". It was a really frustrating conversation, but a real eye opener. The dude was so cold, like he was a member of a different species. Some day he'll be old and expensive and therefore replaceable and I wonder if he'll remember that conversation he had with me.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

His comment was hardly irrelevant. Anyone who discourages this action taken by the Irish bourgeoisie but thinks nothing of the forced migration imposed by the soviet bureaucracy is most certainly a hypocrite who cares more for furthering their ideology than they do for the autonomy and freedom of working people.

I do not disagree with this in principle, though I do think this is not like the more notable population transfer schemes, but like the sort of thing that was present throughout the history of the Soviet Union, typical capitalist economic migration (can't get a job here, get a job over there), but still, the post was irrelevant; not necessarily wrong.

[Crabbensmasher]

So is this like the new konami code of capitalism?

"Look, we have 20% unemployment. Our economy is going into a recession"

"Huh, Well, if we just ship that 20% of our population out of our country, it will eliminate unemployment, right? Our recession would be instantly fixed, and the country's economy would be healthier than before!"

"Yes, well, uh, but that kind of entails, you know, 20% of -"

"Consider it done"

Like, technically, you COULD alleviate economic problems with this, and technically, all the problems associated with unemployment would disappear, and technically, the standard of living would be much higher...

Perhaps though, this is a sequel to Jonathan Swift's 'A modest proposal', in which orphans are sold for food to alleviate Ireland's troubles. I suppose the joke was lost this time around though.

[Tenka]

Capitalism doesn't solve problems, it just moves them around. I heard this somewhere, but I forget where.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

it's not like this is entirely unprecedented in a country like Ireland. I've heard anecdotes from my family there about national newspapers encouraging young people to leave the country and so on, even in "good" times. There is, it has to be said, something of a tradition of emigration in Ireland (a tradition that's rather been forced on the Irish people but a tradition nontheless.) My nan jokes that the Irish are usually famous for being anywhere but Ireland most of the time.

[helot]

I sat next to a hiring manager at a weird birthday dinner for a lady my partner is friends with. He explained to me that his company flat out will not hire someone that is currently unemployed. Doesn't matter what their qualifications are, what their experience level is, just flat out no. His company is large, and he made it sound like it was a pretty standard policy. When I brought up people being laid off for no reasons of their own his response was "everyone has a story, but I'm not interested, its not my job to listen to them". It was a really frustrating conversation, but a real eye opener. The dude was so cold, like he was a member of a different species. Some day he'll be old and expensive and therefore replaceable and I wonder if he'll remember that conversation he had with me.


He probably won't remember it and if he finds himself unemployed there'll be cognitive dissonance. It'll be other unemployed people who are lazy scum but not him, no he'll just be "down on his luck".

It's quite saddening when you come across unemployed people with this kind of mindset. They've obviously bought into all the 'lazy scrounger' rhetoric and try to reconcile that with their own situation by seeing themselves as the exception that proves the rule.


I do think it is a policy for some businesses, for others it can be down to the prejudices of those who's job it is to hire staff. The other day i contacted some company about a job. The woman on the other end of the phone went on some crazy rant about unemployed people (i myself am unemployed). I doubt i'll get the job.

[Devrim]

Personally, I think it has to do with the fact that now you have to be a college graduate with a diploma, or more, in the field your going into. Before, just being a college graduate got you a job. Also the cost to attend college is crazy. This is just one factor in the struggle to get a decent job today.

It may come as something of a shock to you but the majority of people, let alone the majority of working class people, don't actually go to college. Many of them do actually manage to get jobs.

Devrim