INTRODUCTION

Of all the outcomes in respect of children in Scotland over whom the state has assumed responsibility, the decision (previously but no longer available) to send the child to live permanently overseas – to emigrate the child, in other words – was the outcome that we now know to have been the most dangerous for any individual child. As well as being factually dangerous in the sense that it exposed the child to an increased risk of harm, it was problematical in legal terms not only because the decision, made in response to issues of upbringing, had effects far beyond childhood, but also because it was frequently a decision made on the basis of extremely dubious legal authority. It is apparent today – and could have been apparent when emigration of children from Scotland was common – that instead of providing protection to vulnerable children the practice very substantially increased the chances of them suffering even more abuse and neglect than they may already have faced.

Early emigration practices and motivations

The practice of sending vagrant children to the colonies was well-established long before Victoria came to the throne, but throughout that long and increasingly imperial reign, it became a conscious outcome sought both by individuals and by charitable organisations, some of which were established in the period solely to further that purpose. Part of the motivation for emigrating children and young people may well have been a genuinely held belief that a new life elsewhere in the British Empire would offer opportunities to improve their situation not available at home: it was suggested in 1867 that “Investigation will readily satisfy any candid mind that in the Colonies the children would have the same advantages for the present, and many more for the future than in England”. However, other motivations were also in play, including a desire to populate the Empire with white settlers, and to further the spread of Christianity, frequently of a particular confession. These motives, good and bad, all too often blinded individuals and institutions to the very real risks of removing vulnerable children from the spatial scope of the child protection legislation that began to appear towards the end of the nineteenth century. For too many children the “opportunities” offered by emigration failed to provide protection from neglect and exploitation, and offered nothing in return, in terms of the love and security that all children need.