Learning to make do and mend

摘要

For over a decade from the mid-1990s until 2007, Ireland's economy grew more rapidly than any other in western Europe. Foreign investment poured in. Success at selling abroad made Ireland one of the world's largest exporters per head. Opportunity attracted the enterprising. In less than a dozen years, a country long known for exporting its people welcomed immigrants in droves. From having few foreign residents a decade ago, by 2008 one in eight of the population was foreign-born-a far higher proportion than Britain and France where large-scale immigration has been taking place for decades.