🏴 | Unit 1 - Push & Pull Factors for Emigration Flashcards
1
Q
Push Factors
5
A
- Skilled workers in cities, such as handloom weavers, were no longer in demand so emigrated to other countries
- Branch railways enabled cheap factory goods to be accessed in rural areas, which threatened tradesmen such as shoemakers
- Steam power was introduced in the early 19th century and threshing machines began to cut down the amount of time and manpower required to harvest crops – by 1870 Scots were no longer required on farms, which was a problem because farm workers rented tied cottages from landowners, so when laid off they lost their homes
- The Russian Revolution of 1917 brought an end to the Large East European export trade in herring, so men who worked on trawlers and the women who worked as fish gutters lost their jobs
- Many trade workers in Scotland were paid poorly, and significantly less compared to abroad (e.g.: it took granite workers a week to earn what granite workers earned in 1.5 days in America)
2
Q
Pull Factors
6
A
- Nova Scotia in Canada was a popular choice because crofters could live similar lives and farmland with their extensive skills
- Job opportunities of setting up farms drew families to migrate to England – by 1930 22% of farmers in Essex were immigrants, many of which were Scottish
- The railway boom of the 1840s developed railways around the world, making it easier and less risky for Scots to emigrate as if things went wrong, they had the option of returning, so they were less afraid to give it a go
- Up to 1867 Australia was used as a place to send people convicted of crimes in Britain, and during this time around 7600 Scottish prisoners were transported. Many chose to settle in Western Australia after serving their time, so their families moved to join them
- British American Land Company bought 1 million acres of land in Quebec and began to recruit Scottish farmers for their skills – they helped 60 families from the Outer Hebrides with the cost of their passage across the Atlantic
- Many Scots who had already moved wrote letters home that explained the freedoms offered abroad – for example, Neil Calder from Bonar Bridge emigrated to Australia and wrote home to his brother in 1899 about the political and social freedoms in Australia
