An advertising campaign to encourage emigrants arriving home to Ireland for Christmas to return and work here permanently is to begin in the coming days. The Government initiative will see posters and advertisements at airports such as Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Knock asking young emigrants "to come #hometowork".
The posters have echoes of the "young Europeans" airport campaign from the Industrial Development Agency (IDA) in the late 1980s, which aimed to attract foreign direct investment to Ireland by advertising our educated workforce.
A poster to be put on display in the coming days shows an emigrant arriving back to Ireland, accompanied with the tagline: “Make your Christmas commute shorter next year. Come #hometowork in 2016.”
The second, which will be on display when emigrants are returning to their adopted homes, says: “Slán go fóill. Hope to see you again soon. Have you thought about making 2016 the year you move back to Ireland?”
Feargal Purcell, the Government spokesman who devised the campaign, said the social media element takes it cue from the #hometovote Twitter trend, which encouraged people to come back to Ireland to vote in the same-sex marriage referendum in May.
“One thousand jobs a week are being created here,” he said, adding that those being collected from Irish airports at Christmas would see signs “encouraging them to shorten their commute” by coming home.
The initiative was announced by Minister of State for the Diaspora Jimmy Deenihan, who said its aim is to start talking to the diaspora about coming home.
What do you think of the #HomeToWork campaign? Would it encourage you to return to live in Ireland from abroad, or make you feel welcome? Are there significant barriers which prevent you from moving home? Or are you simply happier living overseas now? Have your say in the comments section below.
