The bright red signs showed pictures of snowboarders, mountains and the CN Tower.

"Hurry! Places still available," said the signs posted in Irish cities, advertising Canadian work-and-travel visas for students and people under 35.

That was in September, a month in which the Canadian economy lost jobs and performed below expectations.

But it was still better than what has been going on in Ireland.

The Emerald Isle is mired in high unemployment, the minimum wage has been slashed and the Dublin government has borrowed tens of billions to bail out Irish banks. The property market is in shambles and the governing Fianna Fail party is clinging to low double-digit support from the public.

"That just shows there aren't enough lunatic asylums," said Brian Lucey, an associate professor of finance at Dublin's Trinity College, in a recent telephone interview, when describing the shrinking minority who still support the government.

The poor economy has sent tens of thousands of Irish abroad, including at least 65,300 people in the last year alone.

Coupled with the loss of immigrants for the same reasons, Ireland has now seen its highest net outward migration in a generation, according to the country's Central Statistics Office.

It marks another chapter in Irish history where the country's youth are leaving home.

As Lucey puts it, it is a return to "the normal routine" of Irish people "having to breed children for export."

A new country with new challenges

Canada has become a popular destination for thousands of young Irish workers, couples, and families who have moved to a new country where snow is inevitable and Tim Hortons is a lifestyle.

But it hasn't been an easy switch for many -- and some haven't been able to stay.

Celine McKenna moved to Canada from Mullingar, a town west of Dublin, during the early part of the recession with her husband and two young children.

Now settled in Whitby, Ont., about an hour's drive east of Toronto, McKenna said the move to Canada isn't one she would repeat.

"It's very hard to get established here," she said in a recent telephone interview.

It took months to get health-care coverage, jobs were hard to come by and the family had to pay cash for everything because they are non-residents.

McKenna runs a daycare service in her home and her husband is working in construction -- a field in which if there is no work available, you don't get paid.

"When you have no money, you have no money here," she said, referring to the fact that temporary residents cannot receive welfare. "There's no backup."

Those who were lucky enough to snag jobs when they arrived agree that making the switch to Canada has its challenges.

Benedict Glover, an Irish cardiologist who previously lived in Belfast, spent the past two years working and training at a Toronto hospital.

While he's felt welcomed by the people he met in Canada and has seen his career advance, his wife has been unable to work. She's a doctor, too, but "an unbelievable amount of red tape" has prevented her from working before she completes multiple exams.

Even as a pair of doctors, they had trouble getting set up with some basic things because when you come over "you have zero credit rating," Glover said.

Tough times ahead

At least four years of harsh austerity measures lie ahead for Ireland, which will make it extremely difficult for most Irish expatriates to return home for the foreseeable future.

Even if Ireland is able to recover by 2014, its emigrants will have put years into new pursuits by that time and will find it hard to turn their back on what they've built, said Lucey.

"At that stage, people have made lives and careers elsewhere," said Lucey, who estimates half of these people will become permanent emigrants.

In some cases, emigrants can end up putting down roots even more quickly than they expect.

McKenna said the fact that her children are now settled in school is a factor in staying put in Canada, despite the hardships.

"I couldn't do it to the kids again," said McKenna, who knows of several Irish people who gave up and went back home.

Glover is one of the rare few to find a job in Ireland's recession-beaten economy.

Before the New Year, Glover and his wife will move to the city of Cork in southwestern Ireland, where he will take a job working as a cardiologist at a local hospital.

The couple would have liked to stay longer in Canada, but in the end, it was just too hard for them both to get jobs.

"I think Canadians are pretty warm people and very welcoming, particularly to the Irish," said Glover.

While living in Canada, Glover said he spoke to a handful of Irish people who wanted to seek employment here and let them know about the challenges they would find.

Many have no idea that it's a tall order to find a job in a faraway country whose own young people are struggling to find employment.

"I think the way things are at home, people are just desperate to get out," said Glover.

With files from The Associated Press