The bit about the emigration was obviously to fit the song "Letter To America" in and admittedly on several songs you could tell about 10 minutes before they started that they were being lined up. But it isn't high art! Saying that since we moved into our house (ie two decades ago) we've seen three sets of neighbours up and leave for the other side of the world. All were families with both parents already in work and owning houses. In two of the cases the women were nurses and it was their new job that was lined up first. One went to Oz and one to NZ. So the idea of a nurse being lured abroad by better prospects isn't so unusual.

McGrath is right though in that other than the song's title the story didn't fit the words to the song. It compares the deindustrialisation of Scotland in the Thatcher era (Linwood no more - Methil no more) with the Clearances (Sutherland no more - Lochaber no more). You just kind of have to switch a bit of the brain off and just watch, listen and enjoy :-)