THE NEW IRISH: Lithuanians who are over-qualified for their jobs here hope EU expansion may offer new options, reports Kathy Sheridan
'To be honest," says Irma Vasiliauskaite, "I wanted to go to America." She and several million others, to judge by the frequency of that comment. Three years ago she knew as little about Ireland as we knew about Lithuania. Less maybe. "I just knew Ireland was in Europe, beside England. Oh, and that the weather was rough." Hardly an attractive prospect, but when even Miss Lithuania was denied a holiday visa to attend the Miss World competition in the US it was time for realism.
Vasiliauskaite had just finished school, a bright, ambitious girl in a country suddenly switched on to frenzied capitalism, where "everybody wanted to be a tough businessman like the kind in the American movies". She was not immune. "I just followed them. I was very affected by the tough-businessman image. A lot," she says wryly.
Instead of pursuing a degree - a decision she regrets - she got a diploma as a "businesswoman of retail trade" and promptly wound up as an assistant in a stationery shop. When the shop foundered, the couple who owned it clearly saw potential in the young Vasiliauskaite, making her administrator of another company. She was making €300 a month, "pretty good" for a girl of her age. But not enough for a girl wanting to go places.
Sure, it was grand to have Mango and Nike in Lithuania. The catch was that they had Western price tags. "We had everything you had in the West, but the problem was we didn't have the money. More important to me was if I wanted to visit places abroad I wasn't able, even if I was saving for a whole year. If I wanted my own car or my own place to live it was impossible."
She had also begun to deal with English-speaking suppliers and realised that her prized school English wasn't up to it.
In the meantime agencies were springing up, pushing work permits for Ireland, so she decided to try it for a year. And so the 25-year-old city girl fetched up in the village of Mountshannon, in Co Clare, with "its two pubs, one shop - which is in a petrol station - and to get to the nearest town, Scarriff, I had to hitch-hike, a thing I had never done".
She has no complaints about the couple who first employed her, in Noel's Restaurant in the village - "they were very welcoming, and I appreciated their patience, because I could hardly speak English." And on her hitch-hiking travels she discovered something important about Irish life: she might not have known many people, but they sure knew her. (People in Lithuania tend to mind their own business.)
So Mountshannon was a revelation. "But I was more shocked when I saw Dublin. I'm not sure why, but I didn't like it. On the way in from the airport there were rubbish bags, it seemed dirty, and the weather was bad even though it was summer. I preferred Limerick."
She has come round to Dublin - "I like to go to Grafton Street and Temple Bar" - but it's in Limerick she remains. "Limerick is less expensive; I can live in the city centre, so it's very handy to where I work, at the Woodfield House Hotel. But I also thought that if I went to Dublin, where there are more Lithuanians, I would never learn English."
Irish public transport is still inferior to Lithuania's - "you have to wait a long time, then it might be late, then you're stuck in traffic" - and she agrees with her French boyfriend that when an Irishman says 15 minutes, that means an hour. But on the upside the food she missed so badly in the early days, such as a traditional mince-and-potato dish called cepelinai, is now available in a Lithuanian shop in Limerick.
In the meantime she has been studying, working and saving hard. She bought a laptop and completed a €1,500 course in marketing, advertising, PR and sales. "Last year I sent my CV to hundreds of millions of companies but only got one interview. I know it has been difficult for employers with the work-permit system. So I said I'd go and study and wait for May 1st and then will be my time. I have huge hopes to get the job I want.
"A lot of companies are attempting to do business now in Eastern Europe and so will need interpreters with languages - I have Russian, Lithuanian, Polish and English now - and marketing knowledge." Lest anyone doubt her commitment to commerce, when she gets to do that degree it will involve logistics in international trade.
Ireland has obviously been a mixed blessing for her. "I said I would come for one year, but in that one year I changed a lot. I met a lot of people from other countries - Austria, Japan, China, Germany and a lot of Polish people - and that really opened my mind. Three years ago to see a foreigner on the street in Lithuania was 'oooh!' - especially a black man, though now it's not so unusual."
On the other hand the sight of highly educated Lithuanians with good English reduced to washing dishes and rarely trusted with responsibility has left many of her countrymen and women feeling stung. They are bristling about a highly negative article on Lithuania in a Sunday newspaper recently. Vasiliauskaite was particularly exercised by its references to stones in the streets of Vilnius, the capital, which, she points out, are architectural, "part of a beautiful restoration project of what we call the Old Town". As a fellow Lithuanian points out, EUbusiness Week, a Web-based news service, notes that the country clocked up a "mighty" 8.9 per cent growth last year and is predicted to be the EU's "future Baltic tiger".
There is a definite sense, says Vasiliauskaite, that some Irish regard them all as unwelcome interlopers. "You can feel that they are thinking: 'What are you doing here, you foreigner?' I explain it to myself by thinking that some people have a lower intelligence. I feel it very much at the airport, where people with EU passports can just wave them at customs and those with non-EU passports must queue for half an hour and answer questions that are already there in the documents. I'm really glad that \ May 1st that won't happen any more. No more being third-class people."
She has made few Irish friends but says it's natural. "If I was in my country would I take someone seriously if I know they're leaving in a few months?" In any event, nightclubs and pubs are of little interest to her. There is a genuine bafflement among newcomers such as Vasiliauskaite at how many young Irish spend their money. "A lot of foreigners really wonder how the Irish can do this, going out and drinking so much. Yes, I am shocked at how much money they spend. A businessman told me that it would be very unusual for a young Irish person to have €1,000 in his account," she says wonderingly.
Bearing in mind that she earns about €1,300 a month, is she saying she has €1,000 in her account? "Yes, I would always try to have at least that amount. Here I have to save, because if I fail, if I lose my job, there is no one to help me, so I need to take care of my future. I would never not leave a cent in my account. I think Irish young people will grow up and realise that to build their lives they need to save. I think that the Irish are already moving towards a more European culture, having friends in at home, making a meal."
She usually goes home in August, when the temperature is about 30 degrees, and they head for the beautiful coast or in to the countryside, "where there is beautiful nature and there are private lands but people are allowed to go and enjoy the lakes and rivers".
So where does she think she belongs now? "When I go home my feelings are confused. I'm really glad to see my family and friends, people you know since a child. But now I have a life here, and I miss that too. Back in Lithuania, on the local TV channels, there is a lot of crying and unhappiness; friends have a lot of problems, not enough money. There are disadvantages, but I feel happy here, because I see more opportunities for me here. I meet a lot of people, a lot of contacts. At home I wouldn't be able to do this."
Will she stay? Hard to tell. The world has opened up for Vasiliauskaite. Now Limerick seems "quite small, with not a lot of things to do". Her French boyfriend, who is of Korean extraction, works in telecoms, a mobile industry. She's thinking of Dublin for a start. Who knows where to next?
