Historical Immigration Policies: Trends and Lessons.

This article introduces the Historical Immigration Policy dataset (HIP), a comprehensive database covering immigration policies from 1789 to the 2010s across 31 countries in the Global North and South. HIP addresses limitations of prior datasets by offering a longer temporal scope and broader geographic coverage, coding immigration policy across three dimensions: entry regulations, immigrant rights, and enforcement. Key findings using HIP data include that democracies tend to be less open to immigration than authoritarian states but grant more rights to resident migrants; European states were more open to immigration earlier than commonly assumed; and historically, openness to immigration and inclusive rights for migrants were often complementary rather than trade-offs. The dataset enables longitudinal and comparative research on immigration policy evolution, facilitating new inquiries into political regimes, migration history, and policy interrelations.