The Airman's Gazetteer: The Free State

[stormwell]

Currently our series, which covers the various nations of Darmonica in a greater detail, we take a look at the Tyland Free State. Formerly the Kingdom of Tyland, it now little more than a sad rump of a nation still struggling with the aftermath of defeat. It also faces an uncertain future as parts of its territory remain occupied by powers that may possibly clash with one another before long.

http://www.utherwaldpress.com/2017/11/the-airmans-gazetteer-free-state.html

[Jubal]

Has the Tyland situation led to any exodus of people? I imagine that the Commonwealth (or even Aleyska) might look tempting destinations for young Tylanders compared to their homeland.

[stormwell]

Yes, but it is not an easy process.

Getting passage out of the Free State as a Tylander is difficult, setting up residence in Commonwealth territory is even more so. Commonwealth law typically requires migrants to be able to support themselves for a given period of time before they can receive any help from the government. Since the Commonwealth is still recovering from the War, it doesn't want what it considers an 'extra drain on resources'.

That said, it has been running work programmes in the Treaty Ports. In exchange for doing some work, Tylanders receive a Commonwealth standard ration and a basic wage as well as access to the Commonwealth's version of the NAAFI hops and cafes. These are extremely popular and the Commonwealth has had to put people's names onto a waiting list for when they require extra workers.

[Jubal]

Fair enough - presumably therefore those with higher skillsets (engineers etc) would find it easier as they wouldn't need any govt support, too?

[stormwell]

Yes.

Its rather low on the priority list but the Commonwealth is looking to revise its immigration policies, possibly introduce a points based system like Canada or Australia. That said, it has 'invited' surviving Tylander and Sodkan scientists and engineers.

[Jubal]

Aye, fair enough I should actually look up what the migration rules were for most of the equivalent countries in the mid C20th & immediate post-war era - my impression is that the rules for the real post-war states were generally far looser than is the case for most modern countries, though I may be wrong. Certainly if you go back to the start of the 20th century, there were national worries then about excessive emigration from the UK.

[stormwell]

Interwar UK immigration laws placed a fair number of restrictions on both migrants and refuges, Jewish ones especially in the '30s over economic fears for the jobs market.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_UK_immigration_control#Immigration_controls_in_the_1920s_and_1930s

[Jubal]

Ah, OK, fair enough! My history gets rather fuzzier after WWI...

(And yes - one interesting feature of immigration fears is that they are fairly constant and correlate extremely badly to levels of immigration - the percentage of people who think there are too many foreigners in the UK now is basically the same as it was when net migration was last at the zero line!)