Anne Winter - Böcker

This book focusses on the instruments, practices, and materialities produced by various authorities to monitor, regulate, and identify migrants in European cities from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Whereas research on migration regulation typically looks at local policies for the early modern period and at state policies for the contemporary period, this book avoids the stalemate of modernity narratives by exploring a long-term genealogy of migration regulation in which cities played a pivotal role. The case studies range from early modern Venice, Stockholm and Constantinople, to nineteenth- and twentieth-century port towns and capital cities such as London and Vienna.

Contrary to earlier views of preindustrial Europe as an essentially sedentary society, research over the past decades has amply demonstrated that migration was a pervasive characteristic of early modern Europe. In this volume, the theme of urban migration is explored through a series of historical contexts, journeying from sixteenth-century Antwerp, Ulm, Lille and Valenciennes, through seventeenth-century Berlin, Milan and Rome, to eighteenth-century Strasbourg, Trieste, Paris and London. Each chapter demonstrates how the presence of diverse and often temporary groups of migrants was a core feature of everyday urban life, which left important marks on the demographic, economic, social, political, and cultural characteristics of individual cities. The collection focuses on the interventions by urban authorities and institutions in a wide-ranging set of domains, as they sought to stimulate, channel and control the newcomers' movements and activities within the cities and across the cities' borders. While striving for a broad geographical and chronological coverage in a comparative perspective, the volume aims to enhance our insight into the different factors that shaped urban migration policies in different European settings west of the Elbe. By laying bare the complex interactions of actors, interests, conflicts, and negotiations involved in the regulation of migration, the case studies shed light on the interrelations between burghership, guilds, relief arrangements, and police in the incorporation of newcomers and in shaping the shifting boundaries between wanted and unwanted migrants. By relating to a common analytical framework, presented in the introductory chapter, they engage in a comparative discussion that allows for the formulation of general insights and the identification of long term transformations that transcend the time and place specificities of the case studies in question. The introduction and final chapters connect insights derived from the individual case-study chapters to present wide ranging conclusions that resonate with both historical and present-day debates on migration.

This book focusses on the instruments, practices, and materialities produced by various authorities to monitor, regulate, and identify migrants in European cities from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Whereas research on migration regulation typically looks at local policies for the early modern period and at state policies for the contemporary period, this book avoids the stalemate of modernity narratives by exploring a long-term genealogy of migration regulation in which cities played a pivotal role. The case studies range from early modern Venice, Stockholm and Constantinople, to nineteenth- and twentieth-century port towns and capital cities such as London and Vienna.

Taking the Belgian city of Antwerp as a case-study, this book argues that the direction of nineteenth century societal change was such as to make some groups of people better suited to reap the benefits of new opportunities.

Contrary to earlier views of preindustrial Europe as an essentially sedentary society, research over the past decades has amply demonstrated that migration was a pervasive characteristic of early modern Europe. In this volume, the theme of urban migration is explored through a series of historical contexts, journeying from sixteenth-century Antwerp, Ulm, Lille and Valenciennes, through seventeenth-century Berlin, Milan and Rome, to eighteenth-century Strasbourg, Trieste, Paris and London. Each chapter demonstrates how the presence of diverse and often temporary groups of migrants was a core feature of everyday urban life, which left important marks on the demographic, economic, social, political, and cultural characteristics of individual cities. The collection focuses on the interventions by urban authorities and institutions in a wide-ranging set of domains, as they sought to stimulate, channel and control the newcomers' movements and activities within the cities and across the cities' borders. While striving for a broad geographical and chronological coverage in a comparative perspective, the volume aims to enhance our insight into the different factors that shaped urban migration policies in different European settings west of the Elbe. By laying bare the complex interactions of actors, interests, conflicts, and negotiations involved in the regulation of migration, the case studies shed light on the interrelations between burghership, guilds, relief arrangements, and police in the incorporation of newcomers and in shaping the shifting boundaries between wanted and unwanted migrants. By relating to a common analytical framework, presented in the introductory chapter, they engage in a comparative discussion that allows for the formulation of general insights and the identification of long term transformations that transcend the time and place specificities of the case studies in question. The introduction and final chapters connect insights derived from the individual case-study chapters to present wide ranging conclusions that resonate with both historical and present-day debates on migration.

The issues around settlement, belonging, and poor relief have for too long been understood largely from the perspective of England and Wales. This volume offers a pan-European survey that encompasses Switzerland, Prussia, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Britain. It explores how the conception of belonging changed over time and space from the 1500s onwards, how communities dealt with the welfare expectations of an increasingly mobile population that migrated both within and between states, the welfare rights that were attached to those who “belonged,” and how ordinary people secured access to welfare resources. What emerged was a sophisticated European settlement system, which on the one hand structured itself to limit the claims of the poor, and yet on the other was peculiarly sensitive to their demands and negotiations.

The issues around settlement, belonging, and poor relief have for too long been understood largely from the perspective of England and Wales. This volume offers a pan-European survey that encompasses Switzerland, Prussia, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Britain. It explores how the conception of belonging changed over time and space from the 1500s onwards, how communities dealt with the welfare expectations of an increasingly mobile population that migrated both within and between states, the welfare rights that were attached to those who “belonged,” and how ordinary people secured access to welfare resources. What emerged was a sophisticated European settlement system, which on the one hand structured itself to limit the claims of the poor, and yet on the other was peculiarly sensitive to their demands and negotiations.

Taking the Belgian city of Antwerp as a case-study, this book argues that the direction of nineteenth century societal change was such as to make some groups of people better suited to reap the benefits of new opportunities.