The ‘Scottish’ State and Foreignness, 1885–1914: The ‘Alien’ Concept, Problematisation and the Pursuit of the Common Good

By the turn of the twentieth century, newcomers from continental Europe had begun to be demonstrably ‘present’ in Scottish cities and had begun to collectively interact with a public world informed by the distinct religious and legal traditions of the northern part of the UK. Using the records of identified key state boards or commissions located in Edinburgh and of the London-based Scottish Office, this chapter offers an analysis of interactions between that machinery of government and those foreigners of European origin. When social ‘problems’—as defined in accordance with the particular moral interests prevalent in Scottish public debate—were addressed, and particular migrant categories came under scrutiny, the ideal existence of a ‘common good’ always remained more important than the migrants themselves. Nevertheless, collective action by migrants from Europe did have a place in the public world of Scotland before World War I and this chapter seeks, as one of its key aims, to demonstrate the role of such action in the development of an ongoing evolutionary, dynamic relationship with a ‘Scottish’ state.