Conclusion

Abstract

The book’s Conclusion highlights its historiographical contribution in two key areas. Firstly, it advances a more heterogeneous ‘four-nation’ approach to UK social and immigration history. The Conclusion argues that historians’ homogenising tendency and relentless focus on the English inner-city has obscured experiences in less-traditional sites of migration such as Northern Ireland. The book therefore advocates a more regional approach to UK social history, one that considers factors specific to local contexts and identities. Secondly, we consider how knowledge of historical immigration can enhance our understanding of Northern Ireland as a society. Scholars of Northern Ireland have for decades dwelt on division and conflict, often obscuring more universal everyday social experiences. In utilising oral history to showcase the voices of immigrants, the book has examined alternative communities within Northern Ireland’s binary social structure. This research reflects a growing interest in Northern Irish social history, work that is informed by division and conflict but situated away from the overwhelming glare of the Troubles. The book concludes by considering what an understanding of Northern Irish immigration can tell us more broadly about the intersection of nationality, identity and ethnicity, all of which shape who societies deem to be national insiders and outsiders.