Immigration to Scotland, the experience of immigrants, the migration of Scots within Britain and overseas, the impact of Scots on the Empire, and the effects of migration on Scotland itself.

What this dot point is asking

The SQA wants you to explain the movement of people into, within and out of Scotland between 1830 and 1939, and to weigh the social and economic effects of that movement. You must know who came to Scotland and how they were received, why so many Scots left, what Scots did across the Empire, and how all of this changed Scotland. This is a Scottish History option, examined through the source-handling questions (evaluate the usefulness, how fully, and compare), so you need precise detail and the ability to judge evidence against your own recalled knowledge.

Immigration to Scotland and the immigrant experience

• The Irish. Catholic Irish, many fleeing the Great Famine after 1845, took low-paid work in agriculture, mining, the docks and the textile mills. Protestant Irish from Ulster also came, bringing Orange traditions. The Irish faced anti-Catholic prejudice and competition for jobs and housing, but supported themselves through the Catholic Church, friendly societies and, later, trade unions.
• Italians arrived from the 1890s, often working in catering as ice-cream and fish-and-chip shop owners, forming a small but visible community.
• Lithuanians came to the Lanarkshire coalfields and ironworks, were sometimes used as strike-breakers, and assimilated over time, many anglicising their names.
• Jews, mostly from Eastern Europe, settled in the Gorbals area of Glasgow and worked in tailoring, retail and small trades.

The migration of Scots

Scotland exported people throughout this period, and many areas saw their population fall.

• Push factors. The Highland Clearances removed tenants for sheep farming; rural poverty, the collapse of the kelp industry, potato failures, and recurring slumps in industries such as shipbuilding all forced people out.
• Pull factors. Cheap or free land, higher wages, and assisted-passage schemes drew Scots to Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
• Internal migration. Many Scots also moved within Britain, especially to the industrial Lowlands and to England, seeking work.

The impact of Scots on the Empire

Scots ran businesses and plantations, staffed colonial armies and the civil service, and spread Presbyterian education and the Scottish university tradition. Emigrant Scots also exported farming methods, jute and other industries, binding Scotland's economy tightly to imperial trade.

The effects of migration on Scotland

• Economic. Immigrants supplied cheap labour for heavy industry and farming, while emigration relieved population pressure but drained skilled and young workers. Imperial trade in jute (Dundee), cotton, tobacco and engineering enriched Scottish cities.
• Social and cultural. Scotland became more diverse, with new foods, religions and communities, but also experienced sectarian division between Protestants and Catholics, expressed in the Orange Order and in football rivalries, that endured well into the twentieth century.

Examples in context

A model "evaluate the usefulness" response to a hostile 1848 newspaper source on Irish immigration would open by tying the source to the enquiry, then work through origin, purpose, content and omission: "As a Glasgow newspaper editorial written in 1848, the source is contemporary with the surge of Famine immigration and is therefore well placed to capture host attitudes (origin). Its purpose was to influence readers and likely to inflame opinion against the newcomers, which makes it strong direct evidence of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic prejudice (purpose). Its claims that the Irish brought disease and undercut wages reveal the specific fears of the Scottish working and middle classes (content). It is limited, however, because it says nothing of the economic contribution of Irish labour to mining and the mills, or of the immigrants' own experience (omission). It is therefore very useful for studying Scottish attitudes, though one-sided." This structure earns the SQA marks because each feature is explained in terms of usefulness, not merely described.

Try this

Q1. Which was the largest immigrant group in Scotland in this period? [1 mark]

• Cue. The Irish.

Q2. Give one push factor and one pull factor for Scottish emigration. [2 marks]

• Cue. Push: Highland Clearances or rural poverty. Pull: cheap land or higher wages overseas.