My article is focused on my ancestral home, Scotland’s, immigrants. More specifically, the article focuses on Scottish immigrants in Australian cities from 1880-1933, and how, “this article demonstrates that Scottish migrants in Australia at the turn of the twentieth century largely belonged to an urban industrial working class, and provides a useful correction to the traditional images of Scots in Australia as mostly rural, well-off, and conservative migrants,” (Wilkie 81).
Over time, it’s been argued that settlement patterns of Scots in Australia has been associated with employment opportunities, housing, lifestyle, and religious preferences. But their experiences entering Australia were not always good to start off with and wanting some wishing they could go back home to Scotland. But there were areas in Australia where family houses had been deserted and left open for the taking. It was minimal but enough to satisfy what the immigrants wanted: a portion of land to themselves. They were leaving behind cramped houses where families were living on top of each other, almost literally, to survive in the crowded country, making the change to Australia very different. The choice of housing does not seem to affect what church Scots went to for the main draw seems to be to head towards Presbyterian churches such as Dorcas Street Presbyterian Church and Sunday School. Scottish immigrants tend to work primarily in jobs they were familiar with like manufacturing and shipping and would get jobs by ports.
All in all, I found this article academic journal interesting because it gives a different look at immigration within another country at a different point in history.
Wilkie, Ben. “Lairds of Suburbia: Scottish Migrant Settlement and Housing in . Australian Cities, 1880-1930.” Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, 2016, 81-104.