Articles

Papier om de stoof aan te steken. Mobiliteitscontrole in de Antwerpse hospitaliteitsector tijdens de lange negentiende eeuw

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Abstract

This article examines the control of mobility in Antwerp's hospitality sector during the long nineteenth century. The hospitality sector - the various hotels, lodging houses, inns and pensions - facilitated mobility of very diverse groups along the social ladder, including tourists, merchants and diplomats, as well as sailors, day labourers, peddlers and sex workers. Migration policy research usually focuses on specific groups of migration, but only rarely is attention paid to the full diversity of mobility in historical contexts. An examination of mobility control in the hospitality sector forces us to reflect on the relations of policy toward these diverse mobile groups. With said agenda at the forefront, this article offers an analysis of development of, on the one hand, the legislative framework within which hospital mobility was controlled and, on the other, how it was applied in practice during the long nineteenth century. Migration historians regard this century as a crucial transition period in migration policy, during which the rise of the nation-state provoked various experiments with local and national policies. Belgium, with strong municipal freedoms enshrined in the constitution, and Antwerp specifically, during the period a rapidly growing port city and an important transatlantic link, provides an excellent case study for this.

How to Cite:

Segerink, J., (2024) “Papier om de stoof aan te steken. Mobiliteitscontrole in de Antwerpse hospitaliteitsector tijdens de lange negentiende eeuw”, Handelingen - Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse maatschappij voor taal- en letterkunde en geschiedenis 76, 135–157. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/kzm.90445