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This analysis uncovers the political struggle surrounding immigration restrictions on Irish paupers in Scotland, highlighting its implications for citizenship rights.
The years 1925–32 saw a racialized and sectarian campaign driven by Scottish Conservatives, demanding the repatriation of Irish paupers and the imposition of immigration restrictions on anyone entering Britain from Ireland without employment. Despite powerful support their demands were rejected by the Cabinet because they clashed with the imperatives of imperial subjecthood. This episode brings into focus the relationship between citizenship, rights and belonging in Britain and independent Ireland. Tracing demands for interwar immigration restriction, and their political failure, we reveal the local and national, imperial and international scales of concern shaping policy and practice on migration and citizenship.
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Feldman et al. (2026) studied this question.
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