Aliens, migrants and maids: Public discourses on Irish immigration to Britain in 1937

Abstract

This article examines public discourses on Irish immigration to Britain through an analysis of two separate but related documentary sources from the year 1937: the Liverpool press and the official report, ‘Migration to Great Britain from the Irish Free State: Report of the Inter‐departmental Committee’. Through these sources an examination is undertaken of some of the overlaps and tensions between central government and a specific local context. The article also discusses the gendering processes which, despite the acknowledged preponderance of women among the immigrants, continued to focus almost exclusively on male ‘navvies’. The only women explicitly discussed by the interdepartmental committee were a group of factory ‘girls ‘ in Aylesbury. The majority of Irish women who worked in the private sphere of domestic service were ignored or perhaps deliberately excluded.