what was the social and economic impact of irish migration to england before 1840
The nineteenth century saw the beginnings of mass migration of Irish to Britain. By 1841 their numbers had reached 419,000 firmly establishing the Irish as the largest ethnic migrant group in Britain. ... By nature of the sheer number of Irish in Britain during this period it is clear that the fate of these immigrants is intertwined with the social history of this period. What role did these Irish migrants play in such a rapidly changing climate and to what level did they become immersed in the society of industrial Britain? Irish immigrants have been documented In Britain since the middle ages. However, the migration between Ireland and Britain before the eighteenth and nineteenth century had been relatively a two-way flow of people and was mainly related to the work of seasonal harvesters. Irelands economic prosperity towards the end of the eighteenth century slowed and this, along with the rapid industrial expansion in Britain, appears to have made the flow of migration a much more one-sided affair. By the 1820’s there were noticeable Irish settlements in the many towns outside the major ports of entry and the capital. The Irish who came to dwell in these permanent settlements in the 1820’s and 30’s found themselves more numerous than the itinerant fellow countrymen who roamed Britain as navvies, reapers and destitute paupers. The growing number of Irish who established themselves in the northern cities of Manchester and Liverpool were found to be more prominent in the industries of building, docking and rough factory work. The immigrants faced a hostile native population who held a rigid stereotypical view that the Irish who came to Britain were initially attracted by higher wages than those available in Ireland. ... This conviction held a degree of truth in that the Irish migrants motives were primarily economic. The accusation that the Irish had a measurable effect on lowering wages is supported by several economic historians, among them J. ... H Hunt who in 1981 argued that the importance of the Irish immigrants to the industrial revolution, In terms of being a highly mobile, adaptable and, above all, a cheap labour force was based on false assumptions . The general understanding of Hunts argument is that whilst the Irish were a convenient labour source they were not indispensable.