To the end of June this year, 39,624 had applied for a PPS number, compared to 28,833 Irish citizens.

Since 1 May 2004, when Poland along with the nine other eastern European states joined the EU, just under a quarter of a million Poles applied for Irish work numbers.

This represents the majority of the total of 395,000 applications made to Ireland by citizens from all 10 accession states in the last three years.

And the steep rise in migrant workers coming to Ireland in such a short space of time was confirmed last week by the CSO's population figures, which showed the number of foreign- born residents in the country soared from 10% of the population in the last census in 2002 to 14% last year.

While the government says we need a continual supply of migrant workers to keep the economy moving at the pace we have become accustomed to, the critical policy decision for the new junior minister for integration, Conor Lenihan, is how to facilitate migrant workers to move up the jobs chain and integrate fully into Irish society.

If it fails, Ireland could be facing into the race riots that have beset the UK and France recently while large parts of our cities could be turned into no-go ghettoes.

Below, the Sunday Tribune talks to migrant workers to see how they are fitting in to their new country.