ESRC Seminar Series 15 th July 2011 From the Diggers to No Borders. The importance of a historical perspective in migration studies Bridget Anderson Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) Oxford University 1

Overview ‘The claims that current developments are new or without precedent... Are mostly not supported by extensive knowledge of migrations in the past’ Lucassen, Vagrancy and migration –Vagrancy and Labour statutes of 14 th century –Tudor period, criminality and the commons –Alms: from hospitality to poor relief Working towards a new politics of migration 2

1351 Statute of Labourers The vagrancy/labour statutes an attempt to substitute for serfdom –Regulation of wages (and prices) –Enforcement of service contract –Introduction of compulsory service 3

Masterless Men 4

1388 Statutes of Cambridge Set wage rates: ‘because that servants and labourers will not, nor by a long season, world serve and labour without outrageous and excessive hire and much more than hat been given to such servants and labourer in any time past’ New controls on labour ‘unless he bring a letter patent containing the cause of his going and the time of his return, if he ought to return, under the King’s seal which for this intent shall be assigned and delivered to the keeping of some good man of the hundred’ Three aspects of mobility control: labour social disorder alms 5

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1388 Statutes of Cambridge 7

Thomas More: Utopia But I do not think that this necessity of stealing arises only from hence; there is another cause of it, more peculiar to England.' 'What is that?' said the Cardinal: 'The increase of pasture,' said I, 'by which your sheep, which are naturally mild, and easily kept in order, may be said now to devour men and unpeople, not only villages, but towns; for wherever it is found that the sheep of any soil yield a softer and richer wool than ordinary, there the nobility and gentry, and even those holy men, the abbots not contented with the old rents which their farms yielded, nor thinking it enough that they, living at their ease, do no good to the public, resolve to do it hurt instead of good. They stop the course of agriculture, destroying houses and towns, reserving only the churches, and enclose grounds that they may lodge their sheep in them. 8

Enforcement ‘local officials and keepers of lodgings for travellers examine lodger’s names, dwelling places, destinations, and reasons for travel and bring away suspicious persons before a Justice of the Peace” (Beier, 1985: 155). ‘blackmoores… of which kinde there are already here to manie… should be sent forth of the lande’ (Fryer, 1984:10). 9

State growth ‘Until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state beyond the post office and the policeman. He could live where he liked and as he liked. He had no official number or identity card. He could travel abroad or leave his country for ever without a passport or any sort of official permission’ (AJP Taylor, 1975:25) 10

Poor Law and Settlement 1601 Poor Law 1662 Statute of Settlement poore people are not restrained from going from one Parish to another and therefore doe endeavor to settle themselves in those Parishes where there is the best Stocke the largest Commons or Wastes to build Cottages and the most Woods for them to burn and destroy Charles II, 1662: An Act for the better Releife of the Poore of this Kingdom.', Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: (1819), pp

Settlement certificate 12

Valiant rogues and sturdy beggars Immigration and welfare reform are two sides of the same coin. Put simply, we will never control immigration properly unless we tackle welfare dependency. That’s another powerful reason why this government is undertaking the biggest shake-up of the welfare system for generations… making sure that work will always pay… and ending the option of living a life on the dole when a life in work is possible. David Cameron, april

The Diggers 14

Where’s the Harm in That? 15

My good friends, things cannot go on well in England, nor ever will until everything shall be in common; when there shall neither be vassal nor lord, and all distinctions leveled; when the lords shall be no more masters than ourselves. But ill have they used us! And for what reason do they hold us in bondage? Are we not all descended from the same parents, Adam and Eve? And what can they show, or what reasons give, why they should be more the masters than ourselves? Except, perhaps, in making us labor and work, for them to spend.... They had handsome manors, when we must brave the wind and rain in our labors in the field; but it is from our labor they have wherewith to support their pomp. We are called slaves, and if we do not perform our service we are beaten, and we have no sovereign to whom we can complain or who would be willing to hear us. Let us go to the King and speak with him; he is young, and from him we may obtain a favorable answer, and if not we must ourselves seek to amend our condition. 16

Centre on Migration, Policy and Society University of Oxford 58 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 6QS 17