ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the multiple ways of receiving, selecting, and rejecting foreign migrants and refugees in Marseille and Bordeaux cities that applied national 'rules' for their own purposes. Many foreign migrants committed identity fraud on their original passports. Passports used by foreign migrants not only frequently contained false names but also false information on their age, marital status or professional occupation. Passports were officially considered the only valid and legal means of controlling foreign migrants' or travellers' identity, but this did not keep local administrations from relying on other documents of identification. When foreigners thought to be a threat to public order arrived by foot or wanted to land in the port, local authorities could decide to ban them from the city. The first half of the nineteenth century is crucial for understanding how passports were required for foreign migrants and travellers who wanted to reside permanently or temporarily in town.
