This chapter looks at differences in nationality between employees at Irish firms and those at FDI firms. Do FDI firms bring their labour with them? Do they try to attract high skill labour from abroad? Are they more likely to employ non-national labour than Irish firms? Answering each of these questions is relevant to understanding the mobility of labour in Ireland. For example, if FDI firms located here began decreasing their operations or moved location: how mobile are their staff to taking residence elsewhere?
The data for worker nationality was derived from a matching procedure that utilised pseudonymised Census data from 2016 which is described in detail in the background notes. The data depicted in this chapter therefore presents a snapshot of the workforce from 2016.
| Employees | |
| Poland | 47.905 |
| United Kingdom | 29.232 |
| Lithuania | 14.372 |
| Romania | 10.521 |
| Latvia | 7.075 |
| Hungary | 3.895 |
| Slovakia | 3.777 |
| Brazil | 3.662 |
| India | 3.625 |
| Italy | 3.616 |
Figure 6.1 shows the most common countries of origin for non-nationals working at Irish firms.
| Employees | |
| Poland | 15.615 |
| United Kingdom | 8.284 |
| Lithuania | 3.903 |
| Italy | 2.923 |
| France | 2.906 |
| Germany | 2.218 |
| Latvia | 2.156 |
| Spain | 2.062 |
| Romania | 1.988 |
| India | 1.582 |
Figure 6.2 shows the most common countries of non-nationals working at FDI firms. Both Figure 6.1 and 6.2 show that Polish employees are the most heavily relied upon cohort for both types of firms in the Irish economy.
Figure 6.3 shows the proportions of non-nationals to nationals at Irish firms.
Figure 6.4 shows the proportion of non-nationals to nationals at FDI firms. FDI firms are 7% more likely to employ non-nationals based on the proportion of their workforce in 2016.
| % Employees | |
| Non-National | 14.6797801519538 |
| National | 85.3202198480462 |
| % Employees | |
| Non-National | 21.8167117682001 |
| National | 78.1832882317999 |
| FDI Firm | Irish Firm | |
| 0-7,499 | 20.1891948707168 | 15.7628981223593 |
| 7,500-14,999 | 23.7436622633049 | 18.8549622333072 |
| 15,000-19,999 | 26.6824468578855 | 21.4266944895278 |
| 20,000-29,999 | 29.0773514379434 | 19.335503560529 |
| 30,000-39,999 | 24.4834666552594 | 11.701401900589 |
| 40,000-49,999 | 18.7325798646207 | 8.69857639278108 |
| 50,000-74,999 | 16.545671472771 | 7.48354285985884 |
| 75,000-99,999 | 15.6117077279427 | 8.77635405307161 |
| 100,000-199,999 | 16.3392674442398 | 9.84367081205411 |
| 200,000+ | 18.9885728178945 | 9.21023359288098 |
Figure 6.5 shows the proportions of non-nationals in FDI and Irish firms over different wage levels. For employees that make between €0 and €7,500 16% percent of them are non-nationals in Irish firms while 20% of them are non-nationals at FDI firms. The space between the two curves is the premium that FDI firms have on employing non-nationals at given wage levels. Once wages hit €20,000 per annum the proportions of non-nationals in Irish firms begins to drop; at FDI firms however, the proportion of non-nationals does not begin to drop until the wage level gets to €30,000 per annum. For Irish firms, once the proportion of non-nationals peaks, the slope continues to decrease until it stagnates at approximately 10%. This trend does not hold true for FDI firms however, at the €200,000 plus wage level their proportions of non-national labour increases by three percentage points; this difference supports the idea that FDI firms may attract labour from other countries with high wages.
Next Chapter >> FDI and Gender
