Since the beginning of the great European mass migration, both within the continent and especially to the Americas, in the middle of the nineteenth century, various European states debated its advantages and disadvantages. Among the obvious advantages were diminishing internal social pressure, emigrants’ remittances to their families (which helped to improve the balance of payments), and the opening of commercial and political spaces abroad. Emigrants could also help to create “informal empires” based on commercial, social, and cultural ties. Among the disadvantages was population hemorrhage, with the consequent loss of citizens to other countries and, above all, the departure of men of military age.
Emigrants from most European countries retained citizenship and could pass it on to descendants through the principle of jus sanguinis. This meant that descendants of emigrants would continue to be bound to their countries of origin, including inheriting obligations from there, such as military service. Finally,...
