{{Short description|Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom}} {{Use British English|date=August 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox UK legislation |short_title = Aliens Act 1905{{efn|Section 10(1).}} |type = act |parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom |long_title = An Act to amend the Law with regard to Aliens. |year = 1905 |citation = [[5 Edw. 7]]. c. 13 |territorial_extent = [[United Kingdom]] |royal_assent = 11 August 1905 |commencement = 11 August 1905{{Short description|Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom}} |repeal_date = 23 December 1919 |replaces = [[Registration of Aliens Act 1836]] |amendments = |related_legislation = |repealing_legislation= [[Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act 1919]] |status = Repealed |original_text = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Edw7/5/13/contents/enacted |use_new_UK-LEG = no }}
The '''Aliens Act 1905''' ([[5 Edw. 7]]. c. 13) was an [[Act of Parliament (United Kingdom)|act]] of the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]].<ref name="MH">Moving Here</ref> The act introduced [[immigration]] controls and registration for the first time, and gave the [[Home Secretary]] overall responsibility for matters concerning immigration and nationality.<ref name="MH"/> Those who "appeared unable to support themselves" or "likely to become a charge upon the rates" were declared "undesirable". The act also allowed to turn away potential immigrants on medical grounds. Asylum-seekers fleeing from religious or political persecution were supposedly exempted from the act but, nevertheless, their claims were often denied.<ref name="C4"/><ref>[https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/migration-britains-hospitable-past Migration: Britain’s hospitable past ]</ref>
While the act was ostensibly designed to prevent entry of [[Pauperism|paupers]] or [[Crime|criminals]] and to set up a mechanism to deport those who slipped through, one of its main objectives was to control [[Jews|Jewish]] immigration from Eastern Europe.<ref name="C4">David Rosenberg, '[https://web.archive.org/web/20070514215717/http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/O/origination/immigration.html Immigration]' on the [[Channel 4]] website</ref> Jewish immigration from the Russian Empire significantly increased from 1881<ref>Bernard Gainer, The Alien Invasion: The Origins of the Aliens Act of 1905, (London, Heinemann Educational books LTD, 1972) Preface.</ref> which served as some basis for the creation of the Aliens Act 1905. Although it remained in force, the 1905 act was effectively subsumed by the [[Aliens Restriction Act 1914]] ([[4 & 5 Geo. 5]]. c. 12), which introduced far more restrictive provisions. It was eventually repealed by the [[Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act 1919]] ([[9 & 10 Geo. 5]]. c. 92).
Some of the border control mechanisms established with the Aliens Act 1905 remained throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century.<ref>{{Citation |last=Smith |first=Evan |title=From the Aliens Act to the 'hostile environment': The making of the British border control system |date=2023 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003350255-3/aliens-act-hostile-environment-evan-smith |work=UK Borderscapes |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781003350255-3 |isbn=978-1-003-35025-5|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==Demands for restriction== [[Image:BritishBrothersLeaguePoster(1902).jpg|thumb|right|250px|Anti-immigration poster from 1902, advertising a speech by [[William Evans-Gordon]]. ]]
In the 19th century, the [[Russian Empire]] was home to about five million [[Jews]], at the time, the "largest Jewish community in the world".<ref name="C4"/> They were obliged to live in the [[Pale of Settlement]], on the territory of the former Polish State adjacent regions of Russia. In the aftermath of the [[Assassination of Alexander II of Russia|assassination of czar Alexander II]] and subsequent [[Pogroms in the Russian Empire|pogroms]], large scale emigration ensued, mostly for the [[United States]], but many – about 150,000 – arrived in the United Kingdom, mostly in England.<ref name="C4"/> This reached its peak in the late 1890s, with "tens of thousands of Jews ... mostly poor, semi-skilled and unskilled" settling in the [[East End of London]].<ref name="C4"/>
By the turn of the century, a media and public backlash had begun.<ref name="C4"/> The [[British Brothers' League]] was formed, with the support of prominent politicians such as [[William Evans-Gordon]], MP for [[Stepney (UK Parliament constituency)|Stepney]], organising marches and petitions.<ref name="C4"/> At rallies, its speakers said that Britain should not become "the dumping ground for the scum of Europe".<ref name="C4"/> In 1905, an editorial in the ''[[Manchester Evening Chronicle]]''<ref name="C4"/> wrote "that the dirty, destitute, diseased, verminous and criminal foreigner who dumps himself on our soil and rates simultaneously, shall be forbidden to land". [[Antisemitism]] broke out into violence in South Wales in 1902 and 1903 where Jews were assaulted.<ref>David Cesarani, ''The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry 1841-1991'', (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994) p. 98.</ref>
Aside from antisemitic sentiments, the act was also driven by the economic and social unrest in the East End of London where most immigrants settled. Work was difficult to come by and families required all members to contribute.<ref>Bernard Gainer, ''The Alien Invasion: The Origins of the Aliens Act of 1905'', (London, Heinemann Educational books LTD, 1972) pp. 19-20.</ref>
Future Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] opposed the bill. He stated that the bill would "appeal to insular prejudice against foreigners, to racial prejudice against Jews, and to labour prejudice against competition" and expressed himself in favour of "the old tolerant and generous practice of free entry and asylum to which this country has so long adhered and from which it has so greatly gained".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gilbert|first=Martin|title=Churchill : a life|date=1991|publisher=Heinemann|isbn=0-434-29183-8|location=London|oclc=27434589}}</ref> On 31 May 1904, he [[Crossing the floor|crossed the floor]], defecting from the Conservatives to sit as a member of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jenkins|first=Roy|title=Churchill|date=2002|publisher=Pan Books|isbn=0-330-48805-8|location=London|oclc=50232043}}</ref>
==See also==
* [[Edict of Expulsion]] * [[United Kingdom immigration law]]
== Notes == {{Notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * Bashford, Alison, Gilchrist, Catie. “The Colonial History of the 1905 Aliens Act”, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 40:3 (2012), 409-437. * Bernard Gainer, ''The Alien Invasion: The Origins of the Aliens Act of 1905'' (London, Heinemann Educational books Ltd, 1972) * Feldman, David. "Was the Nineteenth Century a Golden Age for Immigrants?" in Andreas Fahrmeir et al., eds., ''Migration Control in the North Atlantic World: The Evolution of State Practices in Europe and the United States from the French Revolution to the Inter-War Period'' (2003); pp 167–77 shows the actual impact of the 1905 law was small and largely bureaucratic. * Garrard, John A. ''The English and Immigration, 1880-1910'' (1971) *Gartner, Lloyd A. ''The Jewish Immigrant in England 1870-1914'', London (1960): Simon Publications. *Hartnett, Lynne Ann. “Alien or Refugee? The Politics of Russian Émigré Claims to British Asylum at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”, Journal of Migration History, 3:2 (2017), 229-253. * Pellew, Jill. "The Home Office and the Aliens Act, 1905," ''The Historical Journal,'' Vol. 32, No. 2 (Jun., 1989), pp. 369–385 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2639607 in JSTOR] * Vincenzi, Christopher. “The Aliens Act 1905.” Journal of ethnic and migration studies 12, no. 2 (1985), 275–284. * Wray, Helena. “The Aliens Act 1905 and the Immigration Dilemma.” Journal of law and society 33, no. 2 (2006), 302–323
==External links== * {{UK-LEG|asmade=yes}} * Channel 4 [https://web.archive.org/web/20070514215717/http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/O/origination/immigration.html ''Immigration'' by David Rosenberg] * [[UK Immigration Service]]
{{UK legislation}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1905]] [[Category:Repealed United Kingdom Acts of Parliament]] [[Category:Jews and Judaism in England]] [[Category:Immigration law in the United Kingdom]] [[Category:History of immigration to the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Immigration legislation]] [[Category:Antisemitism in the United Kingdom]]