The Alien Invasion

by W. H. Wilkins

The law and custom in force in the petty European States of Bulgaria and Roumania is as follows. In Bulgaria the constantly increasing number of vagrants in the capital of Sophia, as well as in the coast of the Black Sea, and on the Danube, has compelled the Government of the Prince to increase the staff of police, in order, by a more extensive supervision, to put an end to the difficult position in which the Bulgarian population is admittedly placed by alien vagrancy and destitution. The police authorities are therefore bound to keep a strict watch on the strangers arriving in the country, or residing there without occupation, and to have recourse to the immediate expulsion across the frontier of the Principality of all those who are unable to afford surety of their intention to remain, or who attract notice by their destitution, suspicious character, or culpable actions. In Roumania, though there are no general Regulations existing on the subject, the invariable custom is, that persons who are evidently in a state of indigence are not admitted to the country, unless they could prove that they possessed the means of subsistence.

In the German Kingdom of Saxony, though there are no laws on the subject, it is competent for the authorities to prohibit the admission or residence of destitute aliens. In Bavaria also the competent police authorities are allowed to expel a foreigner from the kingdom if this course should appear to be of public expediency; and besides this, the Minister of the Interior is empowered to refuse entrance into the kingdom to foreigners who may be liable to become either a public nuisance or a public burden.

We now come to the second class, namely, those countries which have laws and local regulations for the expulsion of aliens, but have neither law nor custom for prohibiting their admission into the country in the first instance.

Of these we will first take Germany, including all the States with the exception of the kingdoms of Bavaria and Saxony. It is held by international law, that each State has the power of expelling from its territory aliens who may have rendered themselves obnoxious or dangerous to it. Destitute persons convicted of vagabondage or begging, or who, after becoming destitute, have been unable to procure a subsistence for themselves within a period of time laid down by the police, can be placed under arrest, and be handed over to the Government police ("Landespolizei"), who in aggravated cases can consign them to the workhouse; but destitute aliens thus handed over to the police authorities, instead of being consigned to the workhouse, are as a rule expelled at once from the territory of the Empire. In the little kingdom of Würtemburg, the Royal "Oberamts" (provincial administrative authorities) have an uncontested right to expel aliens from the kingdom. This right is generally exercised when it is proved or even suspected that the alien is unable to maintain himself; nor are such aliens entitled to any relief from the communal or charitable institutions of the country.

In Sweden, by a Circular published in 1886, addressed to the Governors of the Provinces, foreigners found without resources in this country, and in a state of vagrancy, are directed to be sent back by the authorities to their own country at the expense of the Swedish Government; in case the country to which the person belongs be so situated that he cannot be forwarded there without having to wait on the road within the boundaries of any other country, due notice is given to the authorities at the place to which the person is sent. As regards the treatment of destitute aliens in Norway, should there be any found in that country, they are taken care of by the police, and forwarded to their own country, the expense being charged in the police accounts. Thus it will be seen the custom in Sweden and Norway is perfectly identical; only there is this difference in the latter country, there are no laws, Royal or municipal, which sanction the practice; it rests entirely upon custom.

The law in Spain amounts to this, that if a foreigner after due inquiry is proved to be a vagrant, he is forced to leave the country. The definition of a vagrant, according to the law of Spain is, it should be noted, as follows:—"A person who has no property or income, no habitual profession or trade, nor any known or legitimate manner of living."

In Italy no special law exists, the residence of aliens in that country being regulated by the common law; but should such persons in the same manner as indigent natives take to begging, or if they engage in no fixed or useful labour, they can be arrested as idle persons, and dealt with by the judicial authorities, who can inflict a punishment upon them, and expel them from the King's dominions. Forcible expulsion is, however, only recurred to as an extreme measure. Usually, aliens are sent back to their own country with a foglio di via, or pass.

In Switzerland the matter is met by the local enactments of the different Cantons. Minute rules are laid down as to the permit of residence to foreigners. Destitute aliens, bad characters, tramps, and suspects are liable to an imprisonment on bread and water, from four to eight days' duration. They are then conducted to the frontier and expelled.

The custom observed in Servia, Hungary, Greece, and Montenegro is all much the same. Either by penal codes, or by the unwritten, but equally stringent, law of custom, the foreigner who is found in any of these countries without visible means of subsistence, and who has no occupation, is requested to leave the country by the authorities, and should he fail to comply, he is forcibly conducted to the frontier and expelled.