The Dominion SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1928. A STUDY IN MIGRATION

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 84, 7 January 1928, Page 8

The Dominion SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1928. A STUDY IN MIGRATION

The Glasgow correspondent of the Manchester Guardian recently sent to his- paper an interesting account of the results of Irish migration to Scotland. He began by quoting from Mr. George Malcolm Thomson’s Caledonia to the effect that “the Scots are being replaced in their own country by a people alien in race, temperament, and religion, at a speed which is without parallel in history outside the era of the barbarian invasions. . . . To-day every fifth baby born in Scotland is a little Irish Catholic. In Glasgow in 1924, 28-4 per cent, of the children born saw the world through the windows of an Irish Catholic home. Making due allowance for the possible errors of exaggeration, both in language and in fact, prompted by an anti-Irish and probably anti-Roman Catholic prejudice, the facts set forth nevertheless present an interesting study in migration. In 1923 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland received the report of a committee on the Irish problem in Scotland. “In the crowded industrial area of the West,” the report stated, “almost every fourth person is Irish. In Lanarkshire alone, the most populous countjin Scotland, soon every third person will be Irish. . . . The evidence is overwhelming that the Irish race in our midst will increase, while the Scottish race decreases.” There has been much discussion on the subject of migration within the Empire. Voluntary immigration is largely influenced by economic considerations. We in New Zealand might reasonably oppose an influx of Asiatics, but logical and Imperial considerations could hardly justify opposition to an influx of Irish, or Scottish, or Australians, or Canadians. Whatever may be the apprehensions of those who raise alarmist protests against the “Irishing” of Scotland, the fact remains that this new population is, in the Imperial sense. British, not foreign. The real point to be considered is that British people, from whatever part of the Empire they may emigrate, should accept the ideals of British Imperial citizenship insisted upon in the country of their adoption. These should be taken as the foundations of any system of Imperial migration. That the Irish inundation of Scotland has been a process independent of any organised scheme, being, one presumes, entirely the result of the pressure of economic forces, does not release Scotland’s new population from the implied obligations of Imperial citizenship. If they make good citizens, very well. If' they do not, then the obvious course would be to return them to their own country. One cannot reasonably object to immigrants on the score of religion, but it may'be good policy to insist on the rejection of bad citizens.