Scottish Clubs and Societies in the Diaspora: A Practical Toolkit for Inclusion and Growth

TY - BOOK

T1 - Scottish Clubs and Societies in the Diaspora

T2 - A Practical Toolkit for Inclusion and Growth

AU - Morton, Graeme

AU - Petrie, Lindsay

PY - 2025/9/1

Y1 - 2025/9/1

N2 - Scots at home have long sought to form clubs and societies where they could meet in good company and benefit from mutual support. Scottish emigrants were no different. They left as pedlars and adventurers then as individuals and families in search of new lives. Quickly upon arrival, they established clubs and societies for fellow Scots to join, linking their members through blood, kin and country, then through culture and affinity. While active all year round, they would soon invite their number to enjoy commemorative activities marking St Andrew’s Day (30 November), the birth of Robert Burns (25 January) and then later Tartan Day (6 April; 1 July). These diasporic organisations coincided with the Scots’ earliest migrations, and remarkably many of these centuries-old societies still exist. They have since been joined by clubs and societies much more recently founded, and whether mobilised to provide charity, culture, employment insurance, education, or religious guidance, these organisations have offered support to many generations of Scots and others. Their connection with the homeland has evolved and matured. Over the last decade, a reassessment of the British empire, the global slave trade, and settlement upon Indigenous lands, has led many people to direct questions towards immigrant societies – about their past and present role. The Scottish settler has been part of this history, and part of its reassessment, and we wanted to explore if these debates had impacted Scottish clubs and societies, and to explore what ‘social inclusion’ might mean to their office bearers, their membership, and to the wider communities in which they operated. We chose to frame this inquiry around the values and practicalities of social inclusion. On the surface there is an obvious tension: historically, Scottish societies were formed by – and limited their cultural, business and philanthropic support to – people born in Scotland or who were of Scottish descent. While the societies we investigated had updated their rules and regulations over recent years, many (for good reason) maintained by-laws rooted in principles laid down at their foundation – which in some cases meant nearly two centuries of continuity. How can, or should, a Scottish organisation be open to all nationalities and all ethnic peoples? How might they be inclusive irrespective of an individual’s economic status, gender, sex, age, disability or any other characteristic? What, indeed, does social inclusion mean in the context of a diaspora club or society? By exploring these questions, we have sought to identify pathways and resources that might help today’s Scottish clubs and societies to better function, grow, and prosper. We hypothesised that insight would come best from the current custodians of diasporic organisations. In the answers they gave us, we learned of the moral, practical and regulatory reasons that explain the benefits of inclusivity and of actively pursuing social inclusion. The regulatory regime is different across the jurisdictions we examined, but the principle we learned was clear. Where private bodies were governed by charitable directives, or were in receipt of charitable or public funds, the clubs and societies of the diaspora must be inclusive of all peoples. Some of the examples we studied were governed by not-for-profit regulations; some delegated these requirements to a larger umbrella organisation; others were absent any external regulation and auditing. Where no oversight was present, still the evidence indicated that social inclusion was welcomed by many current and prospective members, especially younger people. We had an idea of the questions we should ask from historical evidence we had previously examined. The data generated from this study, our analysis and our recommendations, are presented in this report. To further make our research accessible, in a form we hope is useful, these recommendations are also recast as a stand-alone ‘toolkit’ in Appendix 1.

AB - Scots at home have long sought to form clubs and societies where they could meet in good company and benefit from mutual support. Scottish emigrants were no different. They left as pedlars and adventurers then as individuals and families in search of new lives. Quickly upon arrival, they established clubs and societies for fellow Scots to join, linking their members through blood, kin and country, then through culture and affinity. While active all year round, they would soon invite their number to enjoy commemorative activities marking St Andrew’s Day (30 November), the birth of Robert Burns (25 January) and then later Tartan Day (6 April; 1 July). These diasporic organisations coincided with the Scots’ earliest migrations, and remarkably many of these centuries-old societies still exist. They have since been joined by clubs and societies much more recently founded, and whether mobilised to provide charity, culture, employment insurance, education, or religious guidance, these organisations have offered support to many generations of Scots and others. Their connection with the homeland has evolved and matured. Over the last decade, a reassessment of the British empire, the global slave trade, and settlement upon Indigenous lands, has led many people to direct questions towards immigrant societies – about their past and present role. The Scottish settler has been part of this history, and part of its reassessment, and we wanted to explore if these debates had impacted Scottish clubs and societies, and to explore what ‘social inclusion’ might mean to their office bearers, their membership, and to the wider communities in which they operated. We chose to frame this inquiry around the values and practicalities of social inclusion. On the surface there is an obvious tension: historically, Scottish societies were formed by – and limited their cultural, business and philanthropic support to – people born in Scotland or who were of Scottish descent. While the societies we investigated had updated their rules and regulations over recent years, many (for good reason) maintained by-laws rooted in principles laid down at their foundation – which in some cases meant nearly two centuries of continuity. How can, or should, a Scottish organisation be open to all nationalities and all ethnic peoples? How might they be inclusive irrespective of an individual’s economic status, gender, sex, age, disability or any other characteristic? What, indeed, does social inclusion mean in the context of a diaspora club or society? By exploring these questions, we have sought to identify pathways and resources that might help today’s Scottish clubs and societies to better function, grow, and prosper. We hypothesised that insight would come best from the current custodians of diasporic organisations. In the answers they gave us, we learned of the moral, practical and regulatory reasons that explain the benefits of inclusivity and of actively pursuing social inclusion. The regulatory regime is different across the jurisdictions we examined, but the principle we learned was clear. Where private bodies were governed by charitable directives, or were in receipt of charitable or public funds, the clubs and societies of the diaspora must be inclusive of all peoples. Some of the examples we studied were governed by not-for-profit regulations; some delegated these requirements to a larger umbrella organisation; others were absent any external regulation and auditing. Where no oversight was present, still the evidence indicated that social inclusion was welcomed by many current and prospective members, especially younger people. We had an idea of the questions we should ask from historical evidence we had previously examined. The data generated from this study, our analysis and our recommendations, are presented in this report. To further make our research accessible, in a form we hope is useful, these recommendations are also recast as a stand-alone ‘toolkit’ in Appendix 1.

KW - Diaspora

KW - Scotland-history

KW - Scotland - cultural history

KW - SOCIAL INCLUSION

KW - clubs and societies

U2 - 10.20933/100001433

DO - 10.20933/100001433

M3 - Commissioned report

BT - Scottish Clubs and Societies in the Diaspora

PB - University of Dundee

CY - Dundee

ER -