Emigration & Immigration

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Emigration Immigration

• http//www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/learningzon
  e/clips/4353/

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Industry and agriculture attracted men and women
to leave their homes to seek work. In the
Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries, Clydeside
absorbed huge numbers of Highlanders and rural
Lowlanders to work in mills, mines, factories and
shipyards.
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Emigration

• http//www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/learningzon
  e/clips/4353/
• Push factors and Pull factors?

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• In the nineteenth century almost 3/4 of emigrant
  Scots (around 900,000 individuals) crossed the
  Atlantic.
• Although most were bound for the United States,
  until 1847 more Scots went to Canada than to
  any other destination.

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Push-pull factors

• Migration is often analysed in terms of the
  "push-pull model", which looks at the (negative)
  push factors which drive people to leave their
  countries and the (positive) pull factors which
  attract them to their new countries.
• Migration can occur as result of push and pull
  factors.
• Push factors are those which force a person to
  move. This can include drought, famine, lack of
  work, eviction.
• Pull factors are those which encourage a person
  to move. These include work, a better standard of
  living, free land, a chance to start again.

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Highland Clearances

• Landowners and crofters came into conflict
  masses of people left the Highlands for Lowland
  Scotland, America, Canada, Australia New
  Zealand
• Land could be more profitable from sheep farming
• Crofters evicted
• In C19th population of Highlands fell
  dramatically
• New opportunities in textile mills in the south

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Table of events in Highland Clearances
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• Tenants moved off the land to the coast to make
  way for sheep, (and later deer farming)
• Ex-farmers expected to become fishermen
• Many people moved off the land starved froze to
  death at the site where their home had been.
  Starvation was everywhere.

Herring Gutters in Stornoway  
I have been increasing my sheep stock as the
removal of crofters made space. The crofters
could not pay their rents. The population, which
was 500 is reduced to 150. Two of the crofters
are in Tobermory all the others went to America,
Australia or the south of Scotland. Estate owner
Francis Clark, 1851.
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A magazine illustration from 1853 showing the
loading of a ship with emigrants from the Isle of
Skye, northwestern Scotland.

• The actions of the lairds or Scottish landlords
  were push factors
• Some landlords actively encouraged people to
  emigrate.

Sir James has offered to provide 1000 free
passages for people and their families as may
desire to emigrate, to cancel all debts due to
him and to leave them their stock. James
Matheson, Island of Lewis 1850s
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Irish immigration
Many of the Irish who emigrated to Scotland had
worked on the land. In Scotland there was no land
for them. They did unskilled labour often
undercutting the wages of Scottish workers. Irish
labourers came to work on the land and in the
mines, and to help build the canals and railways.

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• The rapid growth of the iron and mining
  industries in the Central belt attracted a huge
  influx of immigrants (mainly Irish and
  Highlanders) into the area to work
• in the mines, ironworks and foundries.
• Many of these immigrants were single men with no
  local ties who found it difficult to get
  accommodation in the hopelessly overcrowded
  towns. In the mid 19th century establishments
  known as Model Lodging Houses were built in
  industrial towns.
• This at least helped the problem. They usually
  consisted of a number of small cubicles in which
  the men slept, with a communal dining area.
• During the 19th century it was common for Irish
  labourers to work seasonally on Scottish Lowland
  farms.
• The construction of canals and later the railways
  employed large numbers of Irish labourers, who
  lived temporarily wherever work took them.
• Some were joined by their families and remained
  in Scotland.

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• The first permanent Irish immigrants were
  handloom weavers. By 1830 around one third of
  Glasgow's weavers were Irish. Others worked in
  the Lanarkshire coal mines. The failure of the
  Irish potato crop in 1845-9 brought famine to
  hundreds of thousands, and a large number came to
  Scotland. Ironically, as Scots left, Irish
  immigration into Scotland was increasing.
• More Irish people came to Scotland after the
  potato famine than went to England and Wales.
  This migration continued for decades, adding to
  those who were born in Scotland of Irish parents
  or grandparents.

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Source C is evidence given to a Parliamentary
Enquiry in 1836 by Alexander Carlisle who ran a
spinning mill in Paisley.
Source C Our mills never would have grown so
rapidly if we had not had large numbers of Irish
families. The work of this town requires women
and children as well as men. Without the Irish,
a sufficient number of workers would never have
been found. The large immigration of the Irish
at the harvest season also proves a great
advantage to our farmers.
3. How useful is Source C for investigating the
results of Irish immigration into Scotland?
3 marks
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Source C is evidence given to a Parliamentary
Enquiry in 1836 by Alexander Carlisle who ran a
spinning mill in Paisley. Our mills never would
have grown so rapidly if we had not had large
numbers of Irish families. The work of this town
requires women and children as well as men.
Without the Irish, a sufficient number of workers
would never have been found. The large
immigration of the Irish at the harvest season
also proves a great advantage to our farmers.
Source D is from Changing Life in Scotland and
Britain. Many native Scots resented the Irish.
They accused them of dragging down wages. While
this was undoubtedly true, it has to be
counterbalanced by saying that by 1880 they were
becoming prominent in Trade Unions and were
helping to push up wages. However, the arrival of
large numbers of desperately poor Irish did
nothing to ease the already overcrowded housing
situation. Moreover, their arrival sometimes
increased existing tensions over religious
beliefs and practices.

• What evidence is there in Source C that the
  arrival of Irish immigrants brought benefits?
• What evidence is there in Source D that the
  arrival of Irish immigrants did not bring
  benefits?

5 marks
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• How far do you agree that the arrival of Irish
  immigrants brought benefits for all Scots?

You must use evidence from the sources and your
own knowledge to come to a conclusion.
4 marks