issue 2

• Pull factors for internal migration to Scotland


  • Seasonal work to send money back home to families
  • Reapers would work during the harvest period
  • Close proximity to Scotland—easy and cheap to travel to
  • To save money for tickets to America
• Push factors for internal migration from Ireland


  • Poverty—High rents on the land
  • Growing population in Ireland— 1790-1840 Irish population more than doubled
  • Impact of potato famine
  • Lack of opportunities
• Where Irish immigrants settled in Scotland

  • West of Scotland—Ayrshire Coal mines
  • Edinburgh – Cowgate known as 'Little Ireland'
  • Dundee – juteworks provided jobs
  • Glasgow
• Industrial Revolution – change from agriculture to industry. This meant that there were lots of jobs available in factories for the immigrants
• Most immigrants settled in the West and Central Belt of Scotland
• Living Conditions of Irish immigrants

  • Overcrowded, little furniture, poor sanitation
  • Hit by disease such as cholera and typhus
  • Kept to themselves in their own communities
  • Settled in poor areas - Glasgow (Saltmarket, Cowcaddens); Edinburgh (Cowgate, Grassmarket); Dundee (Lochlee)
  • Often lived with relatives when they arrived
  • Tenements had no water supply making it difficult to keep homes clean
  • There were no toilets or sewers and waste was thrown into the backcourts or into gutters in the streets
  • Families often had no furniture, no beds or blankets and slept on the hard floor
• Employment of Irish immigrants

  • Street sellers
  • Some opened shops and pubs
  • Irish found work on farms
  • The cotton/textile factories of Paisley, Lanarkshire and Jute mills of Dundee
  • Men, woman and children could find work in Scotland
  • Could find seasonal work on Scottish farms or in the building of canals, railways, roads, and harbours
• Relationships between Irish immigrants and Scots

  • Irish Protestants had a lot in common with the average Scot – long term and deeply embedded cultural interaction between Ulster and lowland Scotland
  • Anti-Catholic sentiments amongst Scots meant that the Catholic Irish immigrants faced bigotry
  • There were instances of Scots throwing stones at Irish boats of immigrants coming into Greenock
  • In 1920s and 30s when the economy collapsed Irish were actively discriminated against for jobs
  • Low levels of education led to Irish being seen as less intelligent and inferior to Scots
  • The Irish were blamed for spreading disease, behaving badly and lowering living standards. This belief was made worse by anti-Irish biased newspaper reports
• Assimilation of Irish immigrants


  • Separate Irish communities developed – churches, priests, schools, charities, football...In some ways this did not help integration
  • Issue of Catholic education particularly contentious
  • Assimilation eventually occurred often due to shared working class experiences
  • Scots and Irish worked together in politics, in Trade Unions
  • Love and intermarriage also helped their assimilation into society
  • They felt safer in their own communities where they had the support of their own people
• Push factors for internal migration within Scotland

  • Overpopulation of highlands
  • Developments in highland tourism
  • Lack of opportunity
  • Harsh conditions in highlands
  • Potato famine
  • Poverty
  • Failure of fishing industries
  • Agricultural revolution
• Pull factors for internal migration within Scotland

  • Increased employment opportunities
  • Easier transport links
  • Attractions of the big city
  • Temporary- Permanent migration for seasonal work
• Push factors for emigration from Scotland

  • Collapse of fishing
  • Highland clearances
  • Slum conditions
• Pull factors for emigration from Scotland


  • Skills in demand abroad
  • Emigration agencies
  • Government schemes
  • Success of Scots emigrants
  • Career opportunities
  • Promises of free or cheap land
  • Gold rush in Australia
  • Transport revolution
  • Opportunities for unskilled workers