Immigration to Barrayaran Empire
The immigration to the Barrayaran Empire is an issue originating in the 2920s (80 years ago) in its current form; before then, the overall economic situation favoured a relatively common mobility only to and from Komarr, and the colonists flow towards Sergyar from the Nexus was scarcely significant. Since late 2920s, the Barrayaran expanding economy and the increasing needs and capabilities of Sergyar had opened immigration offer and demand.
The Nexus population mobility is scarce and easily controllable: therefore the immigration is more a choice made by guest governments rather than a phenomenon experienced by worlds of destination without a real capacity to stop it. The Barrayaran Empire is a complex polity, with different societies and different social needs: Komarr is an advanced planet, with the strict need of conciliating population and domed cities growths, while Barrayar is a growing society with abundant resources compared to the relatively small population, and the need of conciliating the ensuring political and cultural compatibility with the steady increase of the total number of population; finally, Sergyar is a settlement colony, with some of problems of both Komarr and Barrayar.
Surveillance of external immigration and fight against uninvited immigrants is a significant contribution to security of the Empire. It is carried out through activities involving coordination of border space-jump fixed controls and management and strict control of foreigners residing in the Empire, albeit with different degrees and parameters according the specific planet.
Action to combat illegal immigration involves development and adoption of measures and initiatives targeting immigration dynamics. The Central Directorate for Immigration, part of the Ministry of Interiors, is set to develop strategies to counter immigration and dealing with any issue arising from the presence of foreign nationals on the national territory. The Directorate is in charge of gathering and analysing information on measures taken to monitor, prevent and fight against immigration by sea and by land. Handling of immigrants leaving on the national territory is entrusted to the immigration centres falling within the responsibility of the Department for Religion and Immigration.
Barrayar
Barrayar is a society in almost-constant need of qualified and culturally compatible immigration flow, in order to reach a "secure number" for its own development; while Barrayaran population greatly increased in the past decades, there is still need of "new blood" in order to phase definitively out of the unstable stage of demographics.
The Barrayaran Immigration Bureau (BIB) is the Barrayaran executive body that, operated directly by the Directorate of Immigration Policies of the Ministry of Interior, implements the state policy on immigration and also performs law enforcement, control supervision and provision of public services functions in the field of immigration. The Bureau is also responsible for issue of resident registration and immigration control in Barrayar. Due to the position of the planet, the Bureau is mostly concerned with the provision of residence permit.
The Barrayaran Immigration Bureau has territorial offices in every planetary spaceport and space station. The director of the Barrayaran Immigration Bureau is Konstantin Romodanovsky, a former police officer, who is also the Deputy Director of the Directorate of Immigration Policies.
History
Since the beginning of the Vorkosigan Regency, Barrayar has launched a massive qualified immigration programme, believing that having heavily suffered from the not-so-ancient Cetagandan invasion, Barrayar must "populate-and-improve or perish": the Imperial Department of Immigration was established by Prime Minister Count Vortala in 2909.
During these first years, thousands of Galactics migrated to Barrayar and over 50,000 Earth and other worlds immigrants went to Barrayar under the Searched Immigration Scheme. The scheme was open to citizens of worlds having cultures deemed similar or at least highly compatible to Barrayaran one. The qualifications were straightforward: immigrants needed to be in sound health and under the age of 35 years. There were initially only few skill restrictions.
In keeping with policies of the previous decades, Prime Minister Racozy in 2922 announced a preference for promoting immigration to Barrayar of mainly Earth-European or European-derived settlers. Also Japanese or Japan-derived immigrants were accepted.
Immigration changed deeply since 2940s. In 2947, the Government relaxed the Immigration Act favouring people coming from "advanced democracies" and granting the right to settle permanently on Barrayar for business reasons. In 2951 the Empire passed the University Immigration Act, under which students and professors from Beta Colony and similar worlds were admitted to study and teach at Barrayaran universities; in 2957 Betans and Escobarans with 15 years' residence on Barrayar were allowed to become citizens. The 2958 Revised Migration Act introduced a simpler system for entry. Immigration interested also fugitives from slavery, refugees from war and a widespread Nexus Immigration Facilitation Agency (NIFA) was established under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The long period of instability, lasted from 2963-4 to 2974-5, determined the end of the "democratic immigration". In 2980 it was introduced the criterion of the political reliability due to the still delicate political situation: immigrants from Beta Colony and other democratic planets, like Escobar, have since slipped down the list and old criteria were resurrected. Nowadays the NIFA still exists, and it is tasked with researching valuable immigration assets to import; ethnic and collective movement, as well as the settlement of immigrants from the same area in the same region, are all stopped. At the same time, a massive and deepening assimilation policy has been started by Barrayaran authorities on all levels (government and district levels) in order to avoid the loss of the Barrayaran identity and the fate of being eventually reduced to a minority in their own fatherland.
Multiculturalism on Barrayar
Multiculturalism on Barrayar has a special cultural status because the world is cradle to four planetary languages and several cultures. Many policies supporting differing cultures have been put in place, for example the requirement of being written in four languages for public documents and administration papers. Contact between people of different cultures on Barrayar has been characterised by quite-spread intolerance and difficult engagement, and in past decades the effects of cultural identity and assimilation have caused riots and street violence.
With the 2961 External Settlements Act, family reunification was permitted and even collective immigration was accepted, provided the acceptance of settlement in the Southern Continent: this caused the birth of self-segregated communities, and tensions with police steadly arose.
The Barrayaran Commission Against Intra-Barrayaran Racism, which is part of the Central Directorate for Immigration, published a 3001 report about non-white immigrants. According to this report, discrimination based on skin colour on Barrayar is quite common, and affects immigrants decades after their immigration.
Immigrant communities on Barrayar
As of 3001, there are some well-established communities originating from immigration:
- Earth Russians: mainly concentrated in Russophone Northern Districts, most notably in Vormoncrief District. Their main place of settlement is Rozygrad, Vormoncrief District. As their immigration was (and still is) a planeed phenomenon, they have come with several valuable assets: for the most part, they are technologically-advanced farmers, skilled technicians and scientists and their presence in significant numbers is coveted by many Districts.
- Rossiya Russians: originating from the planet Rossiya (in turn colonized and settled by Russian emigrants), they are mainly concentrated in the Southern Continent, most notably in Keroslav District (although they have a presence in Vordarian and Vorkosigan Districts). Their main place of settlement is Kerograd. Most Rossiya Russians were farmers on Rossiya and are farmers on Barrayar; they have a minor but nonetheless significant part in local trades and transportation industry.
- Yllans: originating from Ylla, a distant and remote planet allied of Barrayar, they are of a mixed cultural heritage and mostly of an undesidered ethnic minority on their own planet. They broight a significant wealth and on Barrayar they have kept their trade and commerce specializations, achieving some positions in jewelry commerce industry in the major cities.
- Barrayaran Marilacans: descendants of former refugees from Marilac, a long-time ally of Barrayar, they are one of the most integrated communities, but also one of the least assimilated ones. Their main centre is Vorbarr Sultana itself, where they inhabit Little Marilac.
- Earth Britons: from the English lowlands, they are sparsely distributed in the Northern and Southern Continents. Their main place of settlement is Wellington, Lake District (Southern Continent) and, like their Russian counterparts, are technologically advanced farmers and operators.