In the years between 1790 and 1939, migration was a key theme in the history of Wales. Up to 1914, there was large scale movement into the new industrial and urban centres from the rural areas accompanied by the arrival there in sizeable numbers of migrants from elsewhere in Britain and beyond, among them English, Irish, Italians, Jews and Spaniards, as well as representatives of a large number of African and Asian ethnic groups. These inward movements were agencies for profound cultural, demographic, economic and social change. In the inter-war years, however, this pattern was dramatically and traumatically reversed as nearly 25% of the population moved out. Between 1790 and 1939, also, the out-migration of Welsh people gave Wales a more prominent international dimension. Throughout the period significant numbers of Welsh people emigrated overseas, mainly to the United States and to a lesser extent Australia and Canada. There were attempts to establish independent Welsh colonies, the most well-known being the ‘Wladfa’ in Patagonia. This module examines the patterns and processes of emigration, settlement, acculturation and language change among Welsh migrants in these countries and analyses the economic, demographic, social and cultural influences which shaped their experiences, and the institutions – churches, newspapers and ethnic societies – that helped to sustain and construct their ethnicity. The module also investigates the experiences and impact of in-migrants in Wales and the reception they received, thus posing fundamental questions about the extent of tolerance and racism in Welsh society in the years concerned.

Knowledge and Understanding:

• demonstrate a broad and systematic knowledge of migration within, into and from Wales and an understanding of the patterns and processes involved including causation, settlement, adaptation, acculturation and ethnicity reconstruction;
• identify the main themes and debates involved including the causes and scale of migration from Wales, the nature of migrant adaptation of the Welsh outside Wales and of in-migrants in Wales;
• demonstrate an understanding of a range of concepts/perspectives/debates within the appropriate secondary literature
• analyse migrant motives, reception, adaptation and acculturation, language shift, ethnicity formation in the light of those ideas/contexts/frameworks.

Intellectual Skills:

• identify the nature and scope of the issues raised by migration within, into and from Wales;
• summarise and appraise the relative merits and demerits of alternative views and interpretations about migration within, into and from Wales and evaluate their significance;
• identify problems, assess evidence, and reach conclusions consistent with them on the patterns and processes of migration into and from Wales in this period;
• devise and sustain arguments about the impact of migration on Wales, the extent of tolerance and racism in Welsh society, and the causes of language shift and the role of Welsh migrant institutions among Welsh migrants outside Wales;
• present accurately, succinctly and lucidly, and in written or oral form their arguments in accordance with appropriate scholarly conventions.

Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

• express their ideas and assessments on key themes and issues relating to migration within, from and into Wales;
• discuss these ideas and assessments in an informed manner;
• evaluate a range of arguments of alternative historical/historiographical interpretations;
• to demonstrate an understanding of some of the primary sources, especially migrant letters, and an appreciation of how historians have approached them.

Transferable Skills:

• communicate ideas and arguments effectively, whether in speech or in writing in an accurate, lucid and succinct manner;
• formulate and justify their own arguments and conclusions about a range of issues;
• demonstrate an ability to modify as well as to defend their own position;
• possess a range of information technology resources to assist  with information retrieval
• organise their own study methods and workload and work as part of a team in seminar or tutorial discussions

The course will be taught and students will learn through

• A series of formal lectures will introduce students to the main factual and conceptual issues to be discussed and analysed during the module.
• Seminars, in which key issues and topics are analysed, will enable students to further develop analytic skills.

Transferable Skills:

• communicate ideas and arguments effectively, whether in speech or in writing in an accurate, lucid and succinct manner;
• formulate and justify their own arguments and conclusions about a range of issues;
• demonstrate an ability to modify as well as to defend their own position;
• possess a range of information technology resources to assist  with information retrieval
• organise their own study methods and workload and work as part of a team in seminar or tutorial discussions

Students will be assessed by means of a combination of one 1000 word assessed essay [15%], one 2000 word assessed essay [35%] and one two-hour unseen written examination paper in which the student will answer two questions [50%].

Course assignments:

1. Assessed Essay 1will contribute 15% of the final mark for the module. It is designed to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to review evidence, draw appropriate conclusions from it and employ the formal conventions of scholarly presentation. It must be no longer than 1,000 words (excluding empirical appendices and references).
2. Assessed Essay 2will contribute 35% of the final mark for the module. It is designed to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to review evidence, draw appropriate conclusions from it and employ the formal conventions of scholarly presentation. It must be no longer than 2,000 words (excluding empirical appendices and references).
3. The Examination will take place during the second assessment period [May/June] and will consist of an unseen two hour paper that will contribute the remaining 50% of the final mark for this module. Students must write 2 answers in total. .

1. Wales, migration and the national and international context, 1790-1939

2. The historiography of, approaches to, and sources for, Welsh migration, 1790-1939

3. Migrant motives and migrant letters

4. Migration within and into Wales

5. A Tolerant Nation? Ethnic conflict in Wales

6. Welsh Migrants in England 1790-1914 and case studies of London and Liverpool

7. 'Not dead but gone to Slough': Inter-war migration, and case study of Welsh in Oxford

8. Welsh rural and industrial migration to the United States 1790-1920

9. Patterns and processes of Welsh migration to Australia and Canada c1820-1939

10. Adaptation, assimilation and the construction of Welsh ethnic identity in Australia, Canada and the USA

11. Patagonia and the quest for a ‘New Wales’

12. Forging a transnational Welsh community? The Welsh periodical press overseas

13. The Welsh Language outside Wales, 1790-1939

14. Welsh missionaries in the British Empire 

15 Overview: was there a Welsh ‘diaspora’, 1790-1939? / Comparing and contrasting immigrants in Wales and migrants from Wales

 Alan Conway, The Welsh in America: Letters from the Immigrants