(Swans - October 4, 2010) When I learned about the decision by the good folks who publish Swans that they intended to produce a special issue on immigration, I saw this as an opportunity to investigate the origins of the passport and visa system -- something I regarded as a recent phenomenon. After reading John Torpey's very useful The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship and the State, I was disappointed to discover that such documents have been around for a very long time in one form or another. Upon further reflection, I might have realized that this was the case since state formations -- be they feudal, capitalist, or bureaucratic socialist -- have been around for over a millennium. The only exception to this rule has been primitive communal societies or nomadic herders. Ironically, it will be up to an aroused and enlightened humanity to reintroduce communal social forms but based on advanced technology to finally put an end to the dungeon that such papers represent.
It is a sign of how little we have progressed that the Roma being persecuted across Europe today for their refusal to abide by the norms of "citizenship" were being persecuted for the same refusal in the 16th century. A police ordinance from 1548 Prussia stipulated that "gypsies and vagabonds" (Landstreicher) had to be issued passes to travel within the feudal state. Furthermore, in all feudal entities the lower classes needed traveling papers, a way of tying a serf to his lord's manor. Despite Britain's reputation for being freer and more "enlightened," things were not much different. A 1381 statute prevented anybody but aristocrats from leaving the kingdom. (A point on terminology: passports are required to leave a country; visas are needed to enter one.) Britain also had the same determination to keep the peasant tied to his master's land. A member of the lower classes could migrate from one part of the kingdom to another only if he had a certificate issued by a court official or a cleric. full: http://www.swans.com/library/art16/lproy64.html _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list pen-l@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
