In Dublin you can hardly hear any English. The city centre is filled with traffic fit for a true metropolis and you are surrounded by excited conversations in Spanish, French, Italian and Polish.

Dublin is bustling. The streets are crowded; restaurants and pubs are full at all hours. It’s a big city in a small space, like London squeezed into Camden or Soho. On the streets of Dublin the close and complicated relationship with the British can be sensed in architecture, traffic planning, monuments and street names. The long-lasting economic boom makes business blossom and the shopping possibilities, variety of restaurants and selection of pubs never-ending.

Ireland was stated as the least developed country in Europe before joining the European Union in 1973. With the help of EU grants and foreign investments, the 1990’s saw the rise of the Irish economy and the boom it’s still riding on, “The Celtic Tiger”. Now Ireland is one of the world’s wealthiest nations. Low corporate taxation has attracted international companies, and a surplus of jobs creates immigration. Workforce pours in from “lesser” European economies such as Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland and the UK. Dublin, its capital city, competes with the likes of Paris and London for the title of most multicultural city in Europe. And one of these days it just might win.

Walking around Dublin you find Latvian food shops, Italian delicatessens, Brazilian restaurants, Swedish cafés, Indian spice shops, and billboard posters in Polish.
Most jobs in Ireland are situated in Dublin and the amount of immigrants there is substantial. Of Ireland’s population of just over 4 million, almost half a million are non-Irish. And those are only the ones that show up in statistics, the ones who have changed their address and pay taxes in Ireland. The biggest groups of foreign nationals are the Poles, Lithuanians and Brits. For example, an estimated 200,000 Polish immigrants work and live in Ireland. That’s why there are Polish bakeries, Polish newspapers, pubs and shops all around Dublin.

Living in Dublin has become very expensive as a consequence of the economic boom. Trying to find an apartment in the Dublin region is difficult and most people are forced to share housing. This is, of course, a handy way to meet people and make friends. The typical immigrant is young and single, usually academic as well. There are no cheap hostels in Dublin city centre; still the hostels are filled with the excited murmur of new arrivals, glued to their laptops, trying to find housing or organising job interviews. This, for many, is the first contact with the multitude of cultures in Dublin.
Most foreigners that have moved to Ireland are highly educated and are there temporarily, to work, make money and build a CV. Internationally known companies are constantly hiring and a job with Microsoft, IBM, Google or Apple make for good work experience. There is also an endless amount of call centre jobs for those less ambitious or who don’t yet speak fluent English: you can deal with only your own nationals in your own language. The job market shifts rapidly and people change jobs often. It’s not unlikely to get a management position and a good salary with very little experience.

There are always immigrants who are regarded as more welcome than others, but even so, with the constant flow of foreigners into the country, racism is not a big problem in Ireland. In fact, Dublin was recently voted “as having the most friendly and helpful locals in Europe” by the international TripAdvisor.com-community! Maybe the Irish remember that for hundreds of years it was they who were the immigrants.

Will the immigrants move back to their home countries after saving some money and getting job experience? Will foreigners keep rolling in to the green island in hope of adventure or a better life? Or will the Irish economy recess and force the Irish to emigration, once more? Who knows what Dublin will look like in five or ten years? Right now it’s definitively the place to be. Little Ireland has grown up to be a nation well known and respected by its fellow Europeans.