What are the similarities/differences between the emigrant experience today/early 19th century? - Steve Murdoch

As part of Homecoming Scotland 2009, a three-day international conference - Scotland's Global Impact - was held at Eden Court theatre, Inverness from 22-24 October. Prominent academics, historians and other experts came together to provoke healthy discussion on the history of migration and the influence of Scots abroad. <br /> <br /> Am Baile interviewed several of the speakers during the conference. Here, Dr Steve Murdoch answers the question:<br /> <br /> 'Could you list some of the similarities and differences between the eimgrant experience today and, say, the early nineteenth century?'<br /> <br /> 'Humans through time - at least recorded time - have largely concerned themselves with the same hopes, aspirations and desires. They have the same fears. Technology changes; people are largely the same today as they were in previous centuries. It is conceited to think otherwise.'<br /> <br /> Dr Steve Murdoch is Reader in Scottish History at the University of St Andrews. His research interests include migration from the British Isles in the seventeenth century and all forms of interaction between early modern Scotland and the wider world. He has published extensively on the subject and his major publications include: 'Britain, Denmark-Norway and the House of Stuart 1603-1660' (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2000/2003) and 'Network North: Scottish Kin Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746' (Leiden: Brill, 2006). His major edited collections include 'Scotland and the Thirty Years War, 1618-1648' (Leiden: Brill, 2001) and with Alexia Grosjean, 'Scottish Communities Abroad in the Early Modern Period' (Leiden: Brill, 2005). Also with Alexia Grosjean he has produced the widely acclaimed 'Scotland, Scandinavia and Northern European Biographical Database.'