Poor Relief and Internal Migration Controls in 19th Century Sweden

• In Event: Internal Migration Politics and Policy

Abstract

The relationship between international migration and the welfare state is a hotly contested topic: some scholars argue that migration will in the long run erode support for the welfare state, while others argue that the welfare state has inherent qualities that insulate it from such erosion. This paper explores the pre-history of the assumed tension between migration and welfare, by investigating how domestic migrations were governed in the period right before the development of social security programs. It wants to find out whether the pattern that we see today – when European countries try to control and delimit the immigration of poor and low-educated foreigners – was in that period present at the domestic rather than the international level. It also wants to find out whether internal migration over time led to the centralisation of social policy, with the view to contribute some thoughts to current policy problems.
In this era, Sweden, like most Western European countries employed internal restrictions on movements, through passport demands and other forms of control. This paper wants to investigate, first, to what extent such restrictions were a consequence of the organization of poor relief. As in many similar countries, local parishes were responsible for providing and financing poor relief, which is why one may expect them to be eager to control inflow and settlement. Second, the paper investigates whether non-ceasing internal migration contributed to the gradual centralisation of the care for the poor.
The Swedish case study will in time be compared to other qualitative case studies on Austria, the UK and Germany. In this context, Sweden represents an established and non-imperial nation state. The study draws on historical legal texts and parliamentary debates, along with earlier research. It also uses historical data on early migration restrictions, that have recently been collected for this purpose. Finally, it also relies on data from the Historical V-Dem and the Low-Skill Immigration datasets.

Author

• Sara Kalm, Lund University