Samenvatting

To supplement recent debates concerning the expulsion of criminal foreigners and the repelling of poor refugees with longer-term insights, this contribution examines banishment practices in early modern and modern Northwest Europe. It argues that banishment, a sanction involving a person’s geographical and social exclusion, served both to punish deviants and to monitor mobile newcomers. Expulsion practices were shaped mainly by concerns about the regulation of access to the labor market and poor relief. The profile of the expellee displays remarkable continuity across time: the poor unwanted stranger, lacking social bonds and, in the case of female migrants, perceived as being prone to prostitution. Albeit banishment often proved only temporary and thus not effective, authorities continued to rely on it because of its symbolic function, displaying their diligence in purifying and protecting local society. This was much to the detriment of the expellees, who were driven into marginality and illegality.