ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to show that migration policies and the categorization of migrants in early modern society originated not only from the authorities traditionally charged with the control of the urban population and vagrancy but also from other, less obvious institutions. People who settled, had a job, raised their children in the city, participated in parish life, and formed part of local networks were considered integrated into the urban community and therefore entitled to benefits, irrespective of their origins. Migrants ensured the demographic and economic growth of the state; they were not a priori rejected by the authorities. In Turin, only the Vicariato was explicitly responsible for the monitoring of newcomers and the ousting of unwelcome ones. The Vicariato nevertheless regularly complained about the capitani in the eighteenth century: very few persons of moral integrity were ready to take on the position. Documents were required to attest to one's social relations rather than to one's identity.
