Foreign Labor Migration from the Late Russian Empire: Regulation Practices in the Absence of Law

Abstract

The article raises the problem of legal mechanisms and techniques used for the regulation of foreign labor migration from the late Russian empire, where a unified emigration law did not exist. The research situates itself within the framework of migration history, emphasizing the need to analyze government policies in countries of emigration (points of exit) for a better understanding and reconstruction of global migration processes. A historical analysis of archival and published sources has identified the main strategies and practices of law enforcement imperial actors used in order to control temporary labor migrants from Grodno and Minsk provinces, who crossed the Atlantic, and emigration agents who were intermediaries between out-migrants and steamship companies. In the situation when passport legislation and norms of criminal law appeared to become outdated and ignored by both migrants and imperial officials, it was crucial to work out unified procedures for the control of migration processes. Article 62 of the Statute of Punishments Applicable by the Justices of the Peace was used in order to impose a fine on those peasant laborers who went abroad without a foreign passport. The Statute of State Security was brought into play to expel emigration agents who helped labor migrants cross the imperial border illegally. Practices of administrative law enforcement were not adapted for the protection of migrants’ interests. Changes in the Penal Code, combined with a systematic usage of the Statute of State Security, resulted in simplifying legal procedures as well as in intensifying processes of foreign labor migration.