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If asked at the time, people would probably have given different answers, as they do today. English wool dyers or ale brewers may well have feared an influx of people they thought were competing with them for jobs. Members of London guilds and English merchants may have worried about threats to their profits. At times, people suspected that foreigners - especially the French - were acting for the enemy. But the fact that migrants were scattered so far and wide, in nearly every town and village, and that we have very few accounts of tension, suggests that they mostly fitted in and settled down. People were used to the presence of ‘aliens’. Most people, when asked, may well have seen immigration as a good thing, especially after the shortage of skills and labour following the Black Death.

Looking back we can see that Medieval immigration was very good indeed for England’s economy and, therefore, people’s lives. Migrants brought much needed manufacturing and creative skills. At the start of this period, England was part of a small island on the edge of Europe, invaded and colonised, producing basic raw materials. By 1500 it had a growing manufacturing economy based around the cloth trade, linked to a trading and financial centre of increasing importance. Migrants made this possible.

England was both welcoming and unwelcoming, a pattern that still continues today. Most migrants themselves, if asked whether the move had been good for them, would probably have been positive. England usually offered greater safety, a better income and the chance to build a new life.

Revision tip

Think about this statement:

‘Medieval England was a very difficult place for foreigners to settle in.’

How far do you agree?

Read through this guide making a note of evidence to support this statement. Why were foreigners and minority groups sometimes made to feel unwelcome?

Then read through making a note of evidence to oppose the statement. Why were foreign migrants sometimes welcomed?