WI: United Kingdom Bans Emigration

I Was discussing this with a British Aquaintance of mine a while ago, and he said it was highly plausible and should of been done. This may or may not be ASB, but i'd like to se people opinons on what would happen if it were somehow implemented

What if Great Britian were to Ban Emigration from the Empire around the 1820's. What worldwide effects would it have, and would itt even be enforceable? The most obvious would be less Immigration in the United States, and more Irish Immigrants to Australia or even South Africa.
 
How does that work, do they invade any country that accepts British immigrants? Or do they build a great wall around British territory to prevent them getting out in the first place?

What about trade? What about British overseas investments? What about sea travel? What about the fact that many of the territories that were later to become the British Empire were not formally part of it in 1820, and only became so because British settlers or traders went there?

The mind boggles at the impracticalities of such a scheme, even assuming that such a fundamental trashing of British liberties and the British economy would be possible.
 
I don't think that any government ever during the days of Empire considered banning emmigration.

Indeed, it was actively encouraged as a way of staking a claim and having control over disputed territories. The only exception was the Proclomation line of 1763, but that was incredibly localised and universally flaunted.
 
They actually tried to prevent emigration, especially of skilled workers, to the United States at one point. I don't think it was particularly effective.
 
They actually tried to prevent emigration, especially of skilled workers, to the United States at one point. I don't think it was particularly effective.

The Brain Drain of the 70's when many skilled workers and researchers went to America and Australia.

Given that much of the policy of the British government of the late 18th and early 19th centrury seemed to force people to emmigrate (land clearance, potato famine etc.) it seems unlikely that they would try to ban it.

Now, IMMIGRATION thats a different matter! Every Tory government since the Rivers of Blood speach has been trying to ban immigration
 
For a while after the end of the American Revolution, Britain refused to recognize naturalization by British subjects to other nationalities. That is, if an Englishman emigrates to, say, Massachussetts and becomes a naturalized American citizen under American law, he nevertheless remained a British subject in the eyes of British law.
 
The Brain Drain of the 70's when many skilled workers and researchers went to America and Australia.

That's much later than what I was thinking of. I was thinking of the early 19th Century and the Industrial Revolution, since the British tried to prevent those who knew how to build or run textile machines from leaving.
 
How does that work, do they invade any country that accepts British immigrants? Or do they build a great wall around British territory to prevent them getting out in the first place?

What about trade? What about British overseas investments? What about sea travel? What about the fact that many of the territories that were later to become the British Empire were not formally part of it in 1820, and only became so because British settlers or traders went there?

The mind boggles at the impracticalities of such a scheme, even assuming that such a fundamental trashing of British liberties and the British economy would be possible.


I meant in the sense that a British Subject could not leave the Empire to settle in the USA or a random south american country, or even a european country. Merchants and the like non-withstanding.
 
That's much later than what I was thinking of. I was thinking of the early 19th Century and the Industrial Revolution, since the British tried to prevent those who knew how to build or run textile machines from leaving.

Yes, but it was specific individuals (and merely growing from earlier bans on working in France or the Low Countries), a list with a few hundred names on it. Hardly something with major ramifications.

Banning emigration is inconceivable in both execution and effect - impossible to police and would lead to people starving in the streets with twenty million more mouths to feed come the 20th century (in a polity already importing food).
 
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