Elite might not be the right word (though in terms of percentages and poverty at the time..) The travel of these people was very expensive so they had a form of

Elite might not be the right word (though in terms of percentages and poverty at the time..) The travel of these people was very expensive so they had a form of social capital attached to them that implies city or at least town connections, not living on the very peripherals of society where supplementing your food is the more critical skill. I.e. I think they chose debt over uncertainty as a house servant or collectively as a town and a sect. The two Irish famines are very telling. In 1740 almost no one emigrated across the Atlantic, business men didn't swoop on a chance to go indenture every able bodied Irishman, after 1840 parts of Canada became half Irish. The children of Irish share croppers were Europeans who could at least partially feed themselves without civil infrastructure.