Advanced Genealogy
Alien Cultures
Before 1903 few restrictions were place on immigrants and there was little to do so. In that year a Royal Commission on Alien Immigration discovered that only passengers who arrived by ship examined by customs officers, and that once immigrants were in Britain, they were not forced to register; the only information on how many there were in the country, where they lived and what they did was in the census returns. The 1901 census had revealed that out of a population of 41,458,721 there were 286,952 aliens residing in Britain. The Commission’s report concluded that immigration put a strain on local communities, spread disease, increased crime and allowed anarchists and agitators into the country. In 1905 the Aliens Act was introduced, legislation which was tightened at the outbreak of the First World War when it became compulsory for all aliens over the age of 16 to register with the police. Some of these registers have survived and can be found in police archives or at local record offices. In 1920 the Home Office set up an Immigration Branch, which took control of and enforced immigration legislation.