Conclusion

Abstract

On 1 January 1906, the Aliens Act passed into law. This conclusion examines the human impact of this legislation on arriving migrants, as well as the longer term ramifications of its passage for Britain’s lauded ‘tradition’ of tolerance towards newcomers and minorities. It uses a summary of the arguments within each of the proceeding three chapters to stress the importance of reading alien Jewish space as a rhetorical canvas and contextualising device through which to interpret ideas about the alien Jew. It ends by drawing out the points of comparison and divergence between contemporary rhetoric about migrants and rhetoric generated in Britain at the fin de siècle about Eastern European Jewry. It suggests that, whilst some parallels might be drawn, the figure of the alien Jew remains uniquely placed to reveal the geopolitical anxieties of Britain at the turn of the twentieth century.