In this study Mr Baines has devised a method of estimating the county of
birth of all permanent emigrants from England and Wales in the last four
decades of the nineteenth century - some 2.3 million people. He has
related the rate and timing of migration to the social and economic
characteristics of the counties, which has provided answers to many of
the outstanding questions in the history of English emigration,
including, for example, the idea of an 'Atlantic Economy' and the extent
to which Welsh migration was distinct from or integrated into the
English pattern. Briefly, the book concludes that the emigrants did not,
in the main, come from 'peripheral' parts of the country. Probably one
half of the emigrants had known no environment other than a large town.
It is likely that English and Welsh emigrants were more likely to return
than emigrants from any European country. Most of the emigrants seem to
have been well-informed about the costs and benefits of moving - most
probably from the experience of previous emigrants. English emigration
could not therefore have been a simple flight from poverty, but was
rather based on a well considered decision to leave home, although not
necessarily for ever.