Aliens Act 1905

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Anti-immigration poster, from 1902

The Aliens Act 1905, passed by the British Parliament in 1905, was an "Act to amend the law with regard to Aliens".^[1] The act introduced immigration controls and registration, and gave the Home Secretary overall responsibility for immigration and nationality matters.^[1] One of its main objectives was to control Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe.^[2]

In the 19th century, Tsarist Russia was home to about five million Jews, at the time, the "largest Jewish community in the world".^[2] Subjected to religious persecution, they were obliged to live in the Pale of Settlement, on the Polish-Russian borders, in conditions of great poverty.^[2] About half left, mostly for the United States, but many - about 150,000 - arrived in Britain.^[2] 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.^[2]

By the turn of the century, a popular and media backlash had begun.^[2] The British Brothers League was formed, with the support of local notables, organising marches and petitions.^[2] At rallies, its speakers said that Britain should not become "the dumping ground for the scum of Europe".^[2] In 1905, an editorial in the Manchester Evening Chronicle^[3] wrote "that the dirty, destitute, diseased, verminous and criminal foreigner who dumps himself on our soil and rates simultaneously, shall be forbidden to land".