Thomson, they may have been looking back longingly, but they were looking back to Yorkshire, or Liverpool, or Newcastle, or Norfolk, or Kent, or Cornwall, or London even. Not England.

DaveRo, not sure about being forced to emigrate, but many were transported as slaves to the West Indies after the Bloody Assize.

Dave the Gnome, exactly right. The reason that people are not nostalgic about England, is that England was exploiting them. In exactly the same way as it was the Scottish, Irish and Welsh. Hence it is to your city or county that your loyalty really lies.