The diaspora is concentrated in countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, England, New Zealand, Ireland and to a lesser extent Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.

[18] Rogers Brubaker (2005) wrote that immigrants from Scotland have regarded the ancestral homeland as "an authoritative source of value, identity and loyalty".

The colony's charter, in law, made Nova Scotia (defined as all land between Newfoundland and New England) a part of mainland Scotland.

The Scots have influenced the cultural mix of Nova Scotia for centuries and constitute the largest ethnic group in the province, at 29.3% of its population.

Canadian Gaelic was spoken as the first language in much of "Anglophone" Canada, such as Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Glengarry County in Ontario.

[25] As the third-largest ethnic group in Canada and amongst the first Europeans to settle in the country, Scottish people have made a large impact on Canadian culture since colonial times.

According to the 2011 Census of Canada, the number of Canadians claiming full or partial Scottish descent is 4,714,970,[26] or 15.10% of the nation's total population.

A famous Scot, Thomas, Lord Cochrane (later 10th Earl of Dundonald) formed the Chilean Navy to help liberate Chile from Spain in the independence period.

The Scottish and other British Chileans are primarily found in higher education as well in economic management and the country's cultural life.

[citation needed] A strong cultural Scottish presence is evident in the Highland games, dance, Tartan day celebrations, Clan and Gaelic speaking societies found throughout modern Australia.

[57] The Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland founded Dunedin at the head of Otago Harbour in 1848 as the principal town of its Scottish settlement.

[58] Charles Kettle, the city's surveyor, instructed to emulate the characteristics of Edinburgh, produced a striking, "Romantic" design.

[62][63] Out of gratitude for the opportunity to settle in Kėdainiai, the Scottish burghers funded scholarships for students from Lithuania at the University of Edinburgh.

[65] The vast majority were traders, from wealthy merchants to the thousands of pedlars who ensured that the term szot became synonymous in the Polish language with "tinker".

By 1562 the community was sizeable enough that the Scots, along with the Italians, were recognized by the Sejm as traders whose activities were harming Polish cities; in 1566, they were banned from roaming and peddling their wares.

Thomas Chamberlayne, an English eyewitness, described them disapprovingly in a 1610 letter to Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, stating that "[t]hese Scotts for the most parte are height landers [i.e. highlanders] men of noe credit, a Company of pedeling knaves..."[68] Linked to some degree of persecution and their role in the Danzig uprising, protection (and by extension, a form of control) was offered by King Stephen Báthory in the Royal Grant of 1576, assigning Scottish immigrants to a district in Kraków.

[66][page needed] In 1603, the office of the Scottish General (Generał Szkocki) was created to collect taxes and organize the judiciary over all Scots in Poland, with Captain Abraham Young appointed by King Sigismund III Vasa as the first superior.

Scottish mercenary soldiers were recruited specifically by King Stephen Báthory following his experience with them in forces raised by Danzig against him in 1577.

Fees for citizenship ranged from 12 Polish florins to a musket and gunpowder, or an undertaking to marry within a year and a day of acquiring a holding.

[citation needed] The largest Scottish communities could be found in Gdańsk, Kraków, Lublin, Lwów, Poznań, Warsaw and Zamość, and sizeable numbers of Scots also lived in Brzeziny, Bydgoszcz, Człopa, Krosno, Łobżenica, Raciąż, Sieradz, Sierpc, Tarnów, Tuchola, Wałcz, Warta and Zakroczym.

[72] Small communities also existed in Biały Bór, Borek Wielkopolski, Brody, Chojnice, Czarne, Człuchów, Gniew, Gostyń, Iłża, Jedlińsk, Koronowo, Opole Lubelskie, Puck, Skoki, Starogard, Szamotuły, Szydłowiec, Świecie and Węgrów.

They contributed to many charitable institutions in the host country, but did not forget their homeland; for example, in 1701 when collections were made for the restoration fund of the Marischal College, Aberdeen, Scottish settlers in Poland gave generously.

[77][78][failed verification][79] In 1691, the City of Warsaw elected the Scottish immigrant Aleksander Czamer (Alexander Chalmers) as its mayor.

[82][83] In 1879, Scottish specialists were brought to Warsaw to run a newly established hornware factory of Polish industrialist Ludwik Józef Krasiński [pl].