ABSTRACT
The history of cities, migration, and migration control are closely linked for a number of reasons. Port cities like Antwerp, Bordeaux, London, Marseille, New York, Stockholm, or Venice were locations where boundaries were crossed, and controls tended to be particularly intense, a role now also occupied by cities with major international airports. With the growth of cities and the expansion of the administrative capabilities of both cities and states, the precision of registers and the variants of written identification based on registers grew significantly – both with regard to migrants and to the sedentary population. Bureaucratic systems of migration control become clearly visible within cities only at moments when large numbers of migrants suddenly require registration or new papers. The physical walls surrounding early modern cities suggested the paramount importance of a distinction between inside and outside. Walls and gates facilitated the focus of migration control within larger territories in cities with their built environment and their administrative capabilities.
