Relations between Native Scots and Immigrants

• Relations between the Scots and the Lithuanians were good as they integrated well and were politically active through the mining unions
• The Lithuanians learned to identify with the needs of the Scots worker
• Italian immigrants also got along with the Scots as they ran a popular service through their ice-cream parlours and fish and chip shops which was enjoyed by the Scots
• They also dispersed geographically which meant they were less of a target
• Jews faced some hostility, but it was not widespread
• Jewish businesses such as tailors, cigarette makers, pedlars and travellers did not compete with the industrial economy and therefore, relations between the Jews and the Scots were mostly civil
• In the 1830s and 1840s many Scots were repelled by the poverty and disease of Irish immigrants, Catholic and Protestant alike
• Migrants also got along with the Scots as they ran a popular service through their ice-cream parlours and fish and chip shops which was enjoyed by the Scots
• Seen as less of a threat to native workers or to wage levels
• Riots by Scottish workers from the 1820s to 1850s were not sectarian in nature but directed against the activities of Irish strike-breakers (both Catholic and Protestant) and confined almost exclusively to Lanarkshire and Ayrshire
• The 1918 Education Act led to increasingly separate communities in religious terms. Catholic children did not attend the same schools as protestant children and this divided the Scots and catholic Irish further
• In the 1920s the Church of Scotland became overtly hostile to Roman Catholicism which fuelled hatred towards Irish immigrants
• As the Scottish economy collapsed and the production of they heavy industries fell, workplace discrimination against Catholics grew
• Scots resented the Irish as they were prepared to work for less money but longer hours