Immigration surges as Australia’s mining boom resonates in Europe

About 100 men in their 20s and 30s, filled a conference room at a Dublin hotel last week to hear a migration agent describe the personal fortunes waiting to be made a world away in the booming mining towns of the Australian outback.

With unemployment running at close to 15 percent in Ireland, and local wages a fraction of those now on offer in Australia, it appeared to be an easy sell.