ABSTRACT
Analysis presented in this volume has examined the migration process from a variety of different perspectives. Following assessment of the main characteristics of the data set, the ways in which these varied over time and space, and the role of towns in the national migration system, attention has focused on migration undertaken for a variety of different reasons: employment, family motives, housing, as a response to crisis and for emigration. It has been stressed that these were rarely discrete categories-many moves were undertaken for a variety of reasons and employment, family and housing considerations often interacted to produce a migration decision-and that the precise motives for migration were at all times difficult to discern precisely. This chapter uses the evidence so far presented as a starting point to focus more specifically on the wider ramifications of the migration process, examining the relationship of different migration experiences to the processes of social, economic and cultural change which occurred in Britain during the two centuries after 1750.
