Police confrontations in Macedonia and Calais, suffocation in lorries, drowning at sea and shootings at borders, are, we are told, manifestations of a global migration problem. The ‘problem’ is not confined to the Mediterranean and the Balkans: consider the Rohingya abandoned in the Andaman Sea in May last year or the swelling refugee camps of Jordan and Lebanon; the detention centres on the Pacific island of Nauru and Australian ‘pushbacks’ of refugee boats, or deaths in the Sahara desert.
Migration is a ‘crisis’. Across the world, states are building walls and passing ever harsher immigration and asylum laws; violence and deaths at borders are increasing. But this idea that migration is a peculiarly contemporary problem does not chime with global history. Thousands of years of mobility for trade, exploration and colonialism – movement to marry, make war, convert or find resources – have shaped our world. The longstanding concern of rulers to control the mobility of the ruled has also played its part. The first immigration controls appeared towards the end of the 19th century, but their origins lie far earlier. In 1388, a labourer in England who strayed outside their area was required to carry an authorization letter that bore the King’s seal. By Tudor times in the 15th century, these ‘passports’ had developed into complex documents and false papers cost between two and four pennies.
