Observations on Emigration

In a time and place where the the demands and challenges on immigration receive so much attention, it's interesting to consider the subject from the opposite perspective of emigration - the land giving up its people, as happened to the Highlands of Scotland throughout the 18th century. Dr. Johnson offered this insight:

Emigration was at this time a common topick of discourse. Dr. Johnson regretted it as hurtful to human happiness: "For," said he, "it spreads mankind which weakens the defence of a nation, and lessens the comfort of living. Men, thinly scattered, make a shift, but a bad shift, without many things. A smith is ten miles off: they'll do without a nail or a staple. A taylor is far from them: they'll botch their own clothes. It is being concentrated which produces high convenience."

--page 169.