Managing Migration

Abstract

Through an analysis of both bilingual and exclusively Greek inscriptions commissioned by state actors in Athens and on the islands of Delos and Kos, this chapter explores attempts by Phoenician city-states to manage as well as facilitate the migration of their mobile populations. Such inscriptions indicate that widespread mobility and migration in the region during the fourth to the second centuries bce led states to take steps to clarify the legal standing of their citizens who traveled or lived abroad through a range of diplomatic acts and dedications in religious sanctuaries. As the chapter shows, authorities of Phoenician city-states attempted to regulate mobility and migration by negotiating privileges for their citizens who lived abroad and enabling them to maintain their cultural traditions and their citizenship in their home state. At least one of their motivations seems to have been to ensure that citizens paid taxes directly to their home states. The ties between immigrants and their home states were also bolstered by immigrants living in Greek communities, whose own benefactions and contributions to Phoenician trade organizations helped sustain those long-distance relationships and boost the image of their city-states of origin.