Experiences of Immigrants in Scotland

Question 1

Protestant Irish Immigrants - Experiences

Answer 1

• Settled where weaving trade strong e.g. Renfrewshire, Ayrshire & Glasgow.
• Worked as farm labourers in the South-west.
• Skilled industries (shipbuilding, iron). Bairds of Coatbridge employed Protestants & job ads in Belfast newspapers. Orange lodge reaction against Catholic secret societies that wanted to rid protestants. Assimilated easily, same religion, generally positive experience.

Question 2

Protestant Irish Immigrants - Reaction of Scots

Answer 2

• Better relationship, shared language & religion - weren’t a threat.
• Employers sought out Protestant Irish workers by advertising vacancies in Northern Irish press.

Question 3

Protestant Irish Immigrants - Identity & Assimilation

Answer 3

• In common with average Scot. Long term & deeply embedded cultural interaction between Ulster & lowland Scotland.
• Easier assimilation with common faith.
• Orange Lodges provided way for Protestants to retain identity. First one opened 1800 centre of Maybole, Ayrshire.

Question 4

Catholic Irish Immigrants - Experiences

Answer 4

• Unskilled jobs - coal mining, sugar refineries, jute mills, construction work (railway navvies, forth railway bridge). Unwanted jobs but necessary for growing economy. Positive experience but difficult & dangerous.
• Lived in poorest parts of cities e.g Cowgate in Edinburgh, Lochee, Dundee nicknamed “Little Tipperary”.
• Association with disease - typhus “Irish fever” - Viewed as dirty, drunken & superstitious.
• Changed surnames, intermarried & converted to protestantism.
• Catholic church expanded, priests 134 in 1878 to 234 in 1902. Organisations (League of the Cross) combat Alcohol. Celtic FC.

Question 5

Catholic Irish Immigrants - Reaction of Scots

Answer 5

• Unpopular w/ workers. Strike breakers & kept wages down (coal mining areas).
• Popular w/ employers, willing to work long hours, did unwanted jobs. Provided essential labour at time when economy was growing.
• Lived poor conditions (Cowgate, Edinburgh) Typhus “Irish Fever.”
• ‘Benefit scroungers’ claiming poor relief 3 years residence.
• Anti-catholic feeling led to ‘Scottish Protestant League.” 23’ Church of Scotland pamphlet ‘The Menace of The Irish Race to our Scottish Identity’.

Question 6

Catholic Irish Immigrants - Identity & Assimilation

Answer 6

• Kept identity through church. Blamed for disease, low wages & competing for jobs.
• Celtic FC 1888, Edinburgh Hibernians 1873 separate sporting identity.
• Built churches - meeting place for young.
• Education (Scotland) Act 18’ allowed Catholic schools into state system. Gave right to provide Catholic instructions & own teachers.
• Shared experience w/ Scots, affected by industrial/urbanisation. Trade unions & WW1.
• Even in 30s’ faced persecution organised by Church of Scotland.

Question 7

Jewish Immigrants - Experiences

Answer 7

• Settled central Glasgow, Gorbals offered cheap lodgings & others speaking Yiddish.
• Own businesses, hawkers or peddlers.
• ‘Sweated trades’ i.e. long hours, low pay (cap makers & tailoring).
• Positive, non-threatening though faced anti-semitism.

Question 8

Jewish Immigrants - Reaction of Scots

Answer 8

• Non threatening, own businesses e.g. watchmaking, jewellers, pawnbrokers, tailors - provided service.
• Provided forselves, not burden on local poor relief e.g. Jewish Benevolent Society.
• Anti-semitism existed, though few organised attacks. Daily Record 1905 article ‘Alien danger - immigrants infected with loathsome disease’.

Question 9

Jewish Immigrants - Identity & Assimilation

Answer 9

• Communities e.g. Gorbals. Lived alongside each other, Yiddish.
• Synagogues built e.g. South Portland Street in Glasgow. Reading rooms set up.
• Jewish Benevolent Societies provided members of Jewish community in need.
• Changed names.

Question 10

Lithuanian Immigrants - Experiences

Answer 10

• Coal, iron & steel industry in Lanarkshire & Ayrshire.
• Large community Coatbridge.
• Generally positive, faced negative reaction at first.

Question 11

Lithuanian Immigrants - Reaction of Scots

Answer 11

• Competitors in coal & iron, lowering wages.
• Strikebreakers, unpopular w/ workforce.
• ‘Dirty & immoral’. Soon accepted. Joined trade unions w/ Scots, improving working conditions.

Question 12

Lithuanian Immigrants - Identity & Assimilation

Answer 12

• Bernotaitis became Brown.
• Newspapers, shops & insurance societies.
• 18-14 choice of conscripting in British Army or Russia. Of 1800, 700 chose British.
• By 1920s many left, remaining integrated.

Question 13

Italian Immigrants - Experiences

Answer 13

• Provided service, ice cream barrows, “hokey-pokey” men.
• ‘Morally damaging’, encouraging young people & open Sundays.
• Long hours, restricted social life, counter meeting point.
• Fairly positive, non-threatening & prevented alcohol temptations.

Question 14

Italian Immigrants - Reaction of Scots

Answer 14

• Generally accepted, provided services.
• Hostility w/ Presbyterian. Criticised for opening on Sabbath & being scene of unruly behaviour. Glasgow Herald Newspaper ‘ice-cream hell’.
• Italians recall name calling. Hostility 20s-30s concerns grew over Mussolini’s fascist Gov. Attacks start W11.

Question 15

Italian Immigrants - Identity & Assimilation

Answer 15

• Didn’t try, hoped to go home.
• Organisations e.g. Casa d’Italia branches Edinburgh, Aberdeen & Dundee.
• Young Italians local speech pattern through catering trade.