Multiculturalism in Practice

Irish, Jewish, Italian and Pakistani Migration to Scotland

Suzanne Audrey

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138737839
• eBook ISBN: 9781351733342
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Social Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This title was first published in 2000. Patterns of racism and disadvantage vary throughout Britain, yet most British research continues to focus on data from England and Wales. This Scottish study allows distinctions to emerge which contribute to our understanding of the complex processes of discrimination and integration. Looking first at the history of Irish, Jewish and Italian migration to Scotland, attention is then focused on the Pakistani population. Whilst acknowledging the persistence of racism, the author uses original quantitative and qualitative data to examine the ways in which immigrants and their descendants assert their priorities. The book questions whether focusing on minority ethnic groups as victims of racism is the most effective strategy in undermining exclusionary practices.

1 The Irish in Glasgow

Three major migrations to Glasgow took place during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: those of Irish Catholics, Italians and Jews. Despite diversity of history and origin, it will be shown that there were similarities in the assertion and acknowledgement of ethnic and religious identity that have relevance for the more detailed study of the Pakistani population in Glasgow today. But first it is necessary to understand something of the place to which they migrated.

A Brief Early History of Glasgow

It has been said that Glasgow owes its origins to 'the impulse of religion' [Massie 1989]. The city is thought to have been founded by Saint Mungo in the sixth century, and later incorporated Govan parish on the other side of the River Clyde where Saint Constantine had reputedly built a church in the seventh century. A cathedral was built on the site of St Mungo's original wooden church during the twelfth century [Edward 1993: 12] and a Papal Bull was obtained from Pope Alexander VI some three hundred years later elevating Glasgow to the status of an Archbishopric. Catholic bishops dominated the mediaeval city but during the sixteenth century Scotland embraced the Reformation. In 1560, as the Lords of the Congregation in Edinburgh gave instructions to 'purge the Kirk of all kynd of monuments of adolatrye', Glasgow's Archbishop went into exile [Massie 1989: 11].

A second impulse that shaped the history of the city was that of trade. In 1651 one of Cromwell's commissioners wrote that 'with the exception of the colleges, all the inhabitants are traders' [Ibid: 28] and this propensity increased rapidly as a result of the Act of Union in 1707. The Act created a free market within the British Isles and enabled Scotland to trade with English colonies in the West Indies, America and India. Hostility to union with England had been intense in Glasgow but the city's merchants took full advantage of the new opportunities. The wealth that was generated was evident in their conspicuous consumption, their mansions, and the streets to which they gave their names, but was also invested in manufacturing industry [Miles & Muirhead 1986: 112], Glasgow was eventually known as 'Second City of the Empire' and the prosperity generated did much to convince Scots that there were advantages to the Union. However, resentment of English political domination survived and helped to shape a Scottish identity that is, to this day, determinedly 'not English'.

As trade developed, educational establishments played their part in advancing Scotland's industrial revolution. The University of Glasgow, founded in 1451, was moved 'from the mediaeval to the modern world' during the eighteenth century by Frances Hutcheson, who held the Chair of Moral Philosophy from 1729 until 1746, and began lecturing in the English language as an aid to understanding [Massie 1989: 33]. Also during the eighteenth century, in keeping with the emphasis on promoting knowledge with a practical application, John Anderson set up an Institution, later to become the University of Strathclyde, which offered 'a complete scientific course on physics and chemistry with their application to the arts and manufactures' [Ibid: 36].

Industrialisation and increased prosperity were accompanied by rapid growth in the population. The first official census in 1801 showed that the population of Glasgow was 77,000 and within a hundred years this figure had increased tenfold to over three-quarters of a million [Edward 1993; 13], This growth was partly due to the incorporation of surrounding districts, but of greater significance was the arrival of people from further afield, many attempting to escape poverty or persecution, who were seeking opportunities to improve their situation. The new arrivals entered a vibrant and expanding city: founded through the Roman Catholic faith, yet wholeheartedly embracing the Reformation; initially hostile to the Union, yet prospering as a result of industrialisation and increased trade; generating extremes of wealth and poverty to create magnificent buildings and some of the worst slums in Europe. The remainder of this chapter examines the Irish migration that played a part in the subsequent history of Glasgow.

Irish Migration

Only twelve miles of sea separate Ireland and Scotland at the shortest crossing and so it is not surprising that links between Ireland and Scotland developed well before the nineteenth century. The name Scotland derives from the Gaelic Scots of Ulster who crossed to Argyll in the fifth and sixth centuries, bringing with them their language and Scotland's first experience of the Christian religion [Kay 1982]. Migration was in the opposite direction at the beginning of the seventeenth century when attempts were made to extend British influence by attracting settlers, including Calvinist Lowlanders, to six of the nine counties of Ulster [Curtis 1990: 226-32]. The settlers were given favourable terms in exchange for swearing allegiance to the Crown (and agreeing not to inter-marry or learn the language of the native Irish).

Strong links between Ulster and the West of Scotland were maintained through education, as the sons of tenant farmers and Presbyterian ministers favoured Scottish universities because of their Presbyterian ethos [Bishop 1987]. These students often returned to live in Ulster, although the career of Frances Hutcheson illustrates the reciprocal connections between the two destinations. He was born in Ulster, educated at Glasgow University, became a minister in Ulster, and then returned to Glasgow to become the first Irish-born Professor at the University (where he famously began lecturing in English). Other reciprocal links were maintained through the linen industry. Weavers and bleachers from Ulster first gave instruction to the Scottish labour force and later, when the Irish linen industry began to decline in the 1770s, moved to Scotland to seek employment [Durie 1979].

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, seasonal migration from the West of Ireland to Scotland was an integral part of the lives of many people, and enabled small farmers and cottiers to supplement their income in increasingly difficult circumstances [Collins 1991]. Thousands of them looked for work during the Scottish corn harvest and their journey was made easier by the regular steam boat passenger services which began to operate between Derry and Glasgow in the 1820s. Conditions on board were far from luxurious. On 11 May 1836, the Scots Times was moved to report that the boats were 'crowded on deck with hundreds of poor creatures, who are huddled together and mixed up with horned cattle, pigs, sheep and lambs'. Nevertheless the experience was generally regarded as a worthwhile method of subsidising life in Ireland. In 1845 the Glasgow Examiner reported:

Immense numbers of Irish reapers have passed through Glasgow on their return from different parts of Scotland ... on questioning a small party that looked exceedingly pleased we learned that each had saved £3 of money which they were carrying home with ineffable delight. [Edward 1993: 46]

These established patterns of migration, together with the improved transport systems, made Scotland an obvious destination for the poor when blight caused the failure of successive Irish potato crops between 1845 and 1849, and the Great Famine struck. Estimates suggest that about a million people left Ireland at this time with a further million dying of starvation and fever [Edward 1993: 50], Throughout this period Ireland was producing large quantities of food for export so that this was a famine in which the poor 'did not starve for want of food but for want of the means to pay for it from the lack of employment' [Davis 1991: 14, Handley 1947].

Table 1.1 Irish Emigration 1841-1861

Total Irish emigration	1841-1851	1,194,866
	1851-1861	1,163,418
Irish emigrants to Scotland	1841-1851	approx. 115,000
Total Irish-bora in Scotland	1841-1851	207,367
Total population of Glasgow	1851	358,951
'Irish' population of Glasgow	1851	64,185
[Source: Handley 1947: 20-21]

[Source: Handley 1947: 20-21]

After the Great Famine opportunities for agricultural labourers and cottiers in Ireland declined even further, while the position of larger farmers strengthened.⁶ Large-scale emigration continued as people searched for opportunities abroad and the population fell from 6.5 million in 1851 to 3.2 million in 1911 [Collins 1991: 10]. America was the favoured destination but not everyone could afford the fare. Many felt the West of Scotland, and Glasgow in particular, offered at least the chance of a better life. Statistics relating to this migration are by no means irrefutable, but there is no doubt that a considerable number of desperately poor people left Ireland for Scotland, with as many as 8,000 per week arriving in Glasgow at the height of the famine [Edward 1993: 52]. Handley's statistics indicate that at the time of the 1851 Census over 30% of the Irish-born in Scotland were based in Glasgow, and they constituted 18% of the city's total population.

Attitudes Towards Irish Immigrants

The majority of these immigrants were caught up in the rapid industrial expansion of the period, and the misery and exploitation of whole families working long hours in appalling conditions is well documented [Handley 1947: 130-136]. Men, women and children provided cheap labour in the textile industry, chemical works, potteries and tobacco factories. Many men were employed as unskilled labourers in mines, iron and steel works, docks, locomotive works and the construction industry. The terms 'navvy' and 'Paddy' became synonymous in the public mind despite one estimate that only 10% of'navvies' were actually Irish by birth [Treble 1973: 228-9].

Regular employment was not ensured and poverty, illness and destitution led to applications for Poor Relief. Hundreds of desperate cases were investigated by Inspectors and documented in an Irish Series of the volumes of Poor Law Applications of Glasgow City Parish, but public sympathy was limited and it became commonplace to accuse the Irish of migrating to Scotland specifically to be kept by charity. The Poor Law Magazine began publication in 1858 and one Inspector contributed a poem entitled 'The Irish Pauper in Ireland to his Neighbours' [Edwards 1993: 54], A few lines from the poem illustrate the derisive attitude that was evident amongst some Poor Law officials:

Then come where there's praties and whisky galore
They'll feed us and clothe us, with all of the rest
And make us their own though we come from the West.
In the poorhouse of Scotland we'll live at our aise

Negative stereotypes are often contradictory and this was the case with the Irish who were charged with laziness and living off charity, and with undermining attempts to strengthen employment rights by their willingness to work hard for low wages. The Report on the State of the Irish Poor in Great Britain [1936] included evidence from witnesses largely supporting the allegation that wages were lowered by Irish workers. Irish labourers were commonly accused of undercutting wage rates, and the practice of separating groups of workers to 'prevent trouble' may indeed have been used as a way of imposing lower pay on the Irish [Treble 1973]. Whatever the accuracy or inaccuracy of these assertions, the belief was widespread and contributed to hostility amongst Scottish trade unionists towards them [Gallagher 1987: 31]. Even Engels, who one might assume to have had a deeper understanding of the exploitation of labour power, was not above contributing to negative stereotypes:

For when in almost every great city, a fifth or a quarter of workers are Irish or children of Irish parents who have grown up among Irish filth, no one can wonder if the life, habits, intelligence, moral status - in short the whole character of the working class assimilates a great part of the Irish characteristics. [Engels 1958: 125]

This quotation refers not only to people born in Ireland but to their children, and this became an increasing concern for those who were attempting to measure the size of the 'problem'. In the 1851 Report on the Census of the City of Glasgow and Suburbs, it was asserted that:

Within the last ten years the children born here of Irish parents have been very numerous; but these, of course, are all put under the heading of Scotch. While, therefore, there appears to be an increase of 2.07 percent in the present enumeration, above that which the Irish bore to the population of 1841, the real number of inhabitants who are imbued with Irish characteristics, habits, feelings and religious sentiments is infinitely greater. [Handley 1947: 46]

Thus concern was growing that the immigrants were bringing up their Scottish-born children with an Irish identity, which included 'characteristics, habits, feelings and religious sentiments' that were incompatible with being 'Scotch'. The worrying religious sentiments were those of the Roman Catholic faith and such was the anti-Catholic fervour that Protestant Irish immigrants were rendered almost invisible in anti-Irish discourse. Reports, books, articles and press coverage frequently used the terms 'Irish' and 'Catholic' interchangeably but before focusing on the Catholic population in more detail, consideration will be given to the Irish Protestant population in Scotland.

Irish Protestant Immigrants

Census data did not distinguish immigrants by religion, so that estimates of the number of Irish Protestants have been calculated by subtracting the known number of Catholics from the total number of Irish. Such estimates are crude but the proportion of Irish Protestants is generally accepted to be about 25% [Walker 1991: 48-9]. It has already been shown that connections between lowland Scots and Ulster can be traced back at least as far as the Ulster Plantation in the reign of King James VI (James I of England), and that these were maintained through education and the linen industry. From the middle of the nineteenth century the shipbuilding industry established additional links between Belfast and Glasgow, reinforcing the potential for Glasgow to be perceived as a suitable destination for the Irish Protestant migrant. The long-held assumption of a broad compatibility between Ulster Protestantism and the religious values of lowland Scotland might...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Terminology
• Series Editor's Preface
• Introduction
• 1 The Irish in Glasgow
• 2 Italians in Glasgow
• 3 Glasgow Jewry
• 4 Pakistanis in Glasgow
• 5 A History of Govanhill
• 6 Past and Present
• 7 School-age Education: a Pragmatic Approach
• 8 Youth Services: the Socialisation Model
• 9 Elderly Care: a Case of Benevolent Trial and Error
• 10 Conclusion: the Process of Multiculturalism
• Bibliography
• Index