`I couldn't go back now. Of course, I miss Bosnia, and I think about my friends and family there, but I have put so much of myself into being here, invested so much, that Ireland is my home now."
Fardus Sultan-Prnjavorac has been in Ireland since 1993. The young woman was one of the second group of Bosnians which was admitted with "temporary protection" status.
The Government has said that 1,000 Kosovo refugees will be allowed into Ireland and has put contingency plans into operation. The Kosovans will become the fourth refugee group to come to Ireland.
And on the experience of those who have come before them, though their path into Irish society will be far easier than that of asylum-seekers, they face "a long, hard haul", says Joe Moran, chief resettlement officer with the Refugee Agency.
The first group of "programme refugees" to come to Ireland was that of 528 Hungarians following the Hungarian revolution of 1956. They were accommodated at Knockasheelin Army Barracks in Co Clare under the care of the Irish Red Cross, which offered humanitarian assistance as well as help in arranging visas for the onward migration of the majority to the United States.
Though several did remain, having been here over 40 years they are unwilling to discuss themselves as refugees.
According to Dr Thomas Kabdebo, from Budapest, who left his country in 1956 and came to Ireland in 1983, the small community here has integrated well.
Dr Kabdebo, author of A Time For Every- thing on the Hungarian revolution, is now chief librarian at St Patrick's College, Maynooth.
The Vietnamese community now numbers 605. The first group of 212 was brought here by the Government from refugee camps in Malaysia in 1979. One of those who made the boat trip to Malaysia and came on to Ireland was Nga Van Thri, from Saigon. The biggest problem for him when he first arrived was the language barrier, and his English is still limited.
Mr Van Thri now owns a takeaway restaurant in Dublin, and he and his Vietnamese wife have had four children here.
He speaks constantly of how "grateful" he is to the Irish people.
So, too, does Zdnko Stanar, who joined his Bosnian parents here in 1994. He learnt English at the classes provided by the Government and now works at the Bosnian Community Project in Pearse Street, Dublin. Again, he says the biggest barrier for refugee immigrants is language.
Women, says Ms Sultan, who has co-ordinated a survey of Bosnian refugee women, are particularly isolated in that many cannot access English-language classes.
"They can't get to them perhaps because they are caring for the children or older people. Seventy-three per cent are engaged in home duties," she says, while just 23 per cent were found to be in employment. A second issue identified by the immigrants and the Refugee Agency is the fact that foreign qualifications are not recognised here.
The unemployment rate among the programme refugees, Mr Moran says, is running at approximately 35 per cent.
The children do very well, however. Mr Moran says they tend to be very hard-working in school, get good marks and have excellent application.