4 ms·

Were there actually legal restrictions on those things in many places prior to the routinization of passports and passport controls in World War I?

by schoen 3y ago

adastra22 3y ago
No. You just got on a boat and went to some other country. No passports, no passport controls, no immigration quotas. In the US at least it goes back a little bit further than WW1, to the Chinese exclusion act in the late 1800’s.
- JoeAltmaier 3y ago
  Kind of. You weren't given many rights unless you did it right. For instance, paupers were often excluded from American cities as early as the 1700's. As for immigration quotas, early American colonies were more concerned with increasing immigration. America was big and empty. If you had money, you were welcome. About that. If you didn't have money, you became an indentured servant. Took half your life to pay it off. Not a real citizen until then. So, sure, you could come to America. But it wasn't all honey and roses. It was different, but not much better.
jowea 3y ago
From a quick check of Wikipedia and guesses: the US started restrictions (at the time by race) with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Australia and New Zealand had their own versions of the above in place somewhere between the 1880s that and the 1920s. Latin America also attracted a lot of immigrants so I assume not that many restrictions but I don't know what laws were in place. You'd have to check country by country. I assume colonial powers didn't restrict their own countrymen from emigrating to their colonies in Africa or Asia but that's just a guess. I believe the above covers most of the large scale immigration at the time. To be honest I don't know what would happen if say a random Frenchman went to Tokyo/Moscow/Beirut and tried to buy a house, get a job and marry a local but that's an interesting question. Unfortunately the general wikipedia page isn't complete: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_law
- 082349872349872 3y ago
  If the random frenchman happened to have been jewish, Moscow would've been out of the question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

Were there actually legal restrictions on those things in many places prior to the routinization of passports and passport controls in World War I?

by schoen 3y ago

Were there actually legal restrictions on those things in many places prior to the routinization of passports and passport controls in World War I?

adastra22 3y ago

No. You just got on a boat and went to some other country. No passports, no passport controls, no immigration quotas. In the US at least it goes back a little bit further than WW1, to the Chinese exclusion act in the late 1800’s.

JoeAltmaier 3y ago
Kind of. You weren't given many rights unless you did it right. For instance, paupers were often excluded from American cities as early as the 1700's. As for immigration quotas, early American colonies were more concerned with increasing immigration. America was big and empty. If you had money, you were welcome. About that. If you didn't have money, you became an indentured servant. Took half your life to pay it off. Not a real citizen until then. So, sure, you could come to America. But it wasn't all honey and roses. It was different, but not much better.

jowea 3y ago

From a quick check of Wikipedia and guesses: the US started restrictions (at the time by race) with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Australia and New Zealand had their own versions of the above in place somewhere between the 1880s that and the 1920s. Latin America also attracted a lot of immigrants so I assume not that many restrictions but I don't know what laws were in place. You'd have to check country by country. I assume colonial powers didn't restrict their own countrymen from emigrating to their colonies in Africa or Asia but that's just a guess. I believe the above covers most of the large scale immigration at the time. To be honest I don't know what would happen if say a random Frenchman went to Tokyo/Moscow/Beirut and tried to buy a house, get a job and marry a local but that's an interesting question. Unfortunately the general wikipedia page isn't complete: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_law

082349872349872 3y ago
If the random frenchman happened to have been jewish, Moscow would've been out of the question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]