Scottish Diaspora Research Articles

Second Generation Identities: The Scottish Diaspora in England

Scotland has often had an almost absent relationship with its diaspora, with expatriate Scots often viewed from the ‘homeland’ as being ‘more Scottish than the Scots’. Expatriate Scottish identities are not only strong, but may be rooted in an overly romantic view of Scotland. Most research into the Scottish diaspora, however, has focused on North America and Australasia, although a diaspora exists much nearer home, elsewhere in the UK. Limited previous work suggests that the Scottish diaspora in England does not adopt the overly romantic view of Scotland characteristic of North American Scots and indeed, there is evidence that feelings of Scottish identity begin to fade within a generation of emigration to England. There is also evidence that Scottish organisations within England are declining. This paper therefore explores the continuing sense of a Scottish identity within the Scottish diaspora in England, through a series of interviews exploring the identities of second-generation ‘Scots’ - the offspring of Scottish migrants. The findings suggest that Scottish identity does indeed appear to weaken quite quickly in contrast to the overseas experience, perhaps because proximity to Scotland means that the preservation of an expatriate identity is considered to be relatively unimportant.

American Scots: the Scottish diaspora and the USA

Some 30 million people worldwide claim Scottish ancestry, making the Scots one of the world's largest diasporas. There are few countries around the globe without a Caledonian Society, a Burns Club, a Scottish country dance society, or some similar organisation expressing the Scottish social and cultural heritage. Duncan Sim describes the Scottish diaspora in America, one of the largest. His survey includes interviews with Scottish Americans about their family histories, their membership of Scottish societies and their continuing links with the Scottish homeland. Academic interest in diasporas has grown as the world's population has become more mobile and as forced migration has led to major increases in the numbers of refugee diasporas. In relation to the Scottish diaspora, there is increasing interest, partly as a result of devolution and the existence of a Scottish Government able to engage directly with Scots overseas. The author explores theories of diaspora and how the Scots fit into these. He describes work with American Scots and reports on detailed interviews which cover family histories and issues of identity and belonging. There are chapters dealing with diaspora events such as National Tartan Day and it concludes with some discussion of the continuing nature and importance of expatriate identity. Duncan Sim's book will interest those studying notions of identity as sociologists, geographers or political scientists. It provides a fascinating study of how American Scots relate to their 'home' and an insight into how those in Scotland perceive those Scots who are now abroad.

Scottish devolution and the Scottish diaspora

This paper describes the relationship that exists between Scotland and its diaspora and the ways in which this has changed since the advent of devolution. Based on interviews carried out primarily in the United States, it explores how members of the diaspora have adopted a less historical and sentimental approach to their ‘homeland’ and are increasingly knowledgeable about Scottish constitutional change. In part this has resulted from the growth of the internet and the ease of finding out about developments in Scotland itself, as well as the greater ease and affordability of travel back to Scotland. But, most importantly, the existence of a government in Edinburgh has allowed Scottish politicians and organizations to engage with the diaspora in events such as Tartan Day, in a way in which London-based politicians were never likely to do. Tourist developments promoted by the Scottish government, such as the Year of Homecoming in 2009, have also been highly significant. Thus links between Scotland and its diaspora have been changed and strengthened in various ways.

Imagining the Scottish Diaspora: Emigration and Transnational Literature in the Late Modern Period

While recent historical scholarship has embraced the notion of a Scottish diaspora, this article subjects the term and its application to emigration from Scotland in the late-modern period to rigorous analysis, highlighting both its merits and its limitations. To date, research in this area has typically addressed associational culture within migrant Scottish communities and measured the influence of emigration in terms of numerical indices, the lives of successful migrants, and the impact of institutions such as clanship, the church and the armed forces. This article questions the extent to which such measures of Scottish cultural influence are appropriate for the period since 1900, and challenges ‘tartan’ caricatures of Scottish emigrant culture. Rather, a far more complex interchange of ideas is highlighted in the literature of the Scottish diaspora in the late-modern period which problematises notions of ‘home’, travel and nationality. A more sophisticated rendering of the diaspora paradigm is proposed - one that is more in keeping with the most recent historiography of the Atlantic Archipelago and more appropriate to an age marked by internationalisation and globalised communications. To illustrate the efficacy of such an approach, case studies examine the writings of Robert Louis Stevenson, John Buchan and R. B. Cunninghame Graham. In these short explorations it is shown how cosmopolitanism and an irony were important distinguishing features of how the diaspora influenced appreciations of Scottish identity.

‘The Canny Scot’: Harry Lauder and the Performance of Scottish Thrift in American Vaudeville

Scottish vaudevillian Harry Lauder epitomized Scottishness in the Anglo-American cultural imaginary for much of the twentieth century. Yet Lauder's Scottishness was a carefully crafted performance, a collaborative effort between Lauder and his American agent, William Morris, centred on Lauder's embodiment of the ‘canny Scot’ stereotype. The article argues that this performance served two primary objectives within the context of early twentieth-century vaudeville. First, stories of Lauder's ‘characteristic’ Scottish thrift worked to deflect commentary about the star's status as a highly paid foreign commodity. By planting stories and arranging interviews that represented Lauder as a skilled and cunning Scot, Morris addressed growing anxieties that men, as well as women, were becoming mere cogs in the machine of corporate Broadway capital. Second, Morris's representation of Lauder as the epitome of all things Scottish guaranteed the loyal patronage of the Scottish diaspora and supported expressions of nationalist pride that were not antithetical to Scottish membership within the Union.

Piggery and Predictability: An Exploration of the Hog in Football’s Limelight

Piggery and Predictability: An Exploration of the Hog in Football’s Limelight

Homecoming and Liminality in Walter Scott’s Guy Mannering1

In 2009 Scotland celebrated its first Homecoming year which aimed to encourage the international Scottish Diaspora to return home. During this event emblematic Scottish writers have been commemorated, like Robert Burns or Walter Scott who made the question of exile and return the central topic of his writings, with the long narrative poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), or the novels Redgauntlet (1824), St Ronan’s Well (1824), and above all Guy Mannering (1815) which focuses on the movement homeward. The fiction stages three different types of homecoming, from the simplest and the most straightforward, the return of a Scottish heir after his early abduction away to Holland, to the most problematic, the return of foreigners, i.e. a homeless English tourist Guy Mannering (“a stranger in the [Scottish] land” [II, 9: 162]), and his nomadic and traditionally homeless counterpart, the wandering gypsy Meg Merrilies. On their return home the exiles are constlantly out of place and out of time, as they live in a liminal space (in-between space) at the periphery of a country and at the margin of society, and in a liminal time (in-between time) between chronological linearity and cyclical circularity.And yet, returning home does not necessarily lead to homecoming. These three parallel returns are questioned for they threaten the centripetal movement triggered off by the motion homeward; the home of their choice is indeed located on the Borders, at the edge of Scotland. They are also mutually exclusive as these homecomers all try and return to the same home, the Ellangowan property. Homecoming can only take place within the literary home created by the author.

For the Community: Scottish Historical Archaeology and the Politics of Land Reform

In Scotland, land reform is, historically and still today, a defining political issue and a subject of debate. Central to this debate are different ideological understandings of the rural past. In this paper, I discuss the nature of the Scottish land question and explore several of the main—sometimes complementary, sometimes conflicting—ideologies concerning land, as put forward or supported by different constituencies: politicians; landowners; crofters; Scots more generally; and members of the Scottish diaspora. I consider the histories to which these ideologies relate and seek to locate the historical archaeology of rural Scotland in its political and social contexts.

Highland homecomings: genealogy and heritage tourism in the Scottish diaspora - By Paul Basu

Highland homecomings: genealogy and heritage tourism in the Scottish diaspora - By Paul Basu

Connecting with the Scottish Diaspora

Connecting with the Scottish Diaspora

A Scottish diaspora: influences on educational planning in twentieth-century England

(2003). A Scottish diaspora: influences on educational planning in twentieth-century England. History of Education: Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 319-330.

Contributing Caledonian culture: A legacy of the Scottish Diaspora

(2003). Contributing Caledonian culture: A legacy of the Scottish Diaspora. Journal of Australian Studies: Vol. 27, Voicing Dissent, pp. 87-95.

The Emigrant Experience: The Scottish Diaspora

'The Emigrant Experience: The Scottish Diaspora' conference was co-hosted by the interdisciplinary Scottish Studies Program of the University of Guelph and the Canadian educational and heritage organisation, the Scottish Studies Foundation. The papers presented dealt with a range of economic and social issues pertaining to Scottish emigration. Although the major focus of the papers was on Canadian examples, others examined Scots travelling to the United States, New Zealand and Europe.