Was migrating way easier back then (e.g., people can just board a ship with their bags to the US and settle there)? What makes migrating to most countries so difficult now?

Question

Was migrating way easier back then (e.g., people can just board a ship with their bags to the US and settle there)? What makes migrating to most countries so difficult now?

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Answer 1

Throughout history various places have time to time required people to have some sort of permission or pay some tax to travel between kingdoms or states, but once you got there, you could generally stay. It wasn’t a big problem because there weren’t so many people, and travel was hard.

Until the 19th century, you could pretty much just go anywhere and live where you wanted subject to the whims of local kings and whatnot. Individual ports might turn away ships if they had a lot of sick people.

In the 1860’s, the US entered a treaty with China that allowed the US to suspend immigration from China, which they did in the 1880’s due to anti-Chinese sentiment (we got rid of that law after WWII).

Countries really started making more modern-style immigration laws and requiring travel documents for cross-border travel during and after WWI. The US started to funnel immigrants through centers like Ellis Island, but the rules were fairly lenient. (As an aside, Ellis Island is a fantastic place to visit; if I recall correctly, they say that over 40% of US citizens can trace their ancestry to an immigrant that entered the US in the 1920’s).

During the 1920’s, the League of Nations (which was later replaced by the UN) held a conference to discuss matters of travel ticketing and travel documents. They came up with a booklet with some suggestions, but no formal agreements. Nonetheless, countries started issuing passports and treaties about travel between nations.

Then, after WWII, the restrictions became much tighter. The process became increasingly more complicated over time, quotas were added. Part of this was because due to the cold war and fear of foreign spies, part was just anti-immigrant feelings, and ultimately air travel made ports of entry all over the country that required a larger centralized bureaucracy to manage an increasing number of foreign travelers.

In 1980, members the UN formally set international standards for passports.

What we have today is the product of 200 years of evolution in immigration laws, 2 world wars, the cold war, and “the war on terror”.