The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) published a reported titled “Are community characteristics linked to people’s attitudes to immigration in Ireland?” on 22 July 2025.
This paper is based on a nationally representative sample of adults fielded by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in Spring 2023, matched to 2022 Census data on the characteristics of communities in which survey respondents live. The main finding of the report was that neither the proportion of migrants in a community nor recent increases in the share of migrants in that community are associated with immigration attitudes, on average. However, other characteristics of local areas do influence attitudes. Also, in rural areas, attitudes to migrants are less positive than in urban areas.
The report can be downloaded here