"Britain has seen the inward migration of people attracted by work, the prospect of a better life or to escape unrest and persecution at home. In the fourteenth century new technical skills arrived with French weavers and German engineers. In the sixteenth century refugees from France, Belgium and the Netherlands escaping religious intolerance arrived. The 1830s and 1850s there were large numbers of Irish immigrants driven from their homes by rural poverty and famine." (Quoted from paper)