The Creation of Illegal Migration in the German Confederation, 1815–1866

This article puts the control, regulation and management of migration into the historical context of Germany’s nascent statehood in the 19th century. Underlying the discussion is the basic premise that regimes of illegal migration are characterized by the interrelation between migration movements and the way the state administration deals with them: “Illegal migration” crystallizes around the ideological and political principles of migration and sedentariness which exist at a given time, and those authorities and tools which are used for its administration. In the German states, migration and migrants were gradually illegalized in the first half of the 19th century and became a driving force in the formation of the German state. “Individuals without legitimation” and “homeless people” were to be tracked down, expelled and, wherever possible, accepted back by their “home states.” The search for “domestic security” and “welfare” was one of the core motivational factors for the German states, expressed in the three patterns of argumentation regarding the demarcation of borders: economy, cultural identity, and political danger. As a result, the ensuing criteria for illegalization consolidated ideas of desired and undesired populations and gave rise to a regime of illegal migration, the structure of which was essentially characterized by inter-governmental “cartel conventions” on expulsions, culminating in the Gotha Treaty in 1851. This article provides the first systematic evidence for the utilitarian mechanisms which led to the illegalization of migration and migrants during the process of state formation and analyses the related discourse on “desired persons,” “tolerated persons” and “troublesome persons.”