“A Lawful Path or a Forbidden Trail?” – Legal and Illegal Emigration from Ung County (1880–1914)

Abstract

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, among the northeastern counties of the Kingdom of Hungary, it was Ung County that was particularly involved in the processes of mass emigration. This phenomenon was primarily caused by economic difficulties, land shortage, and social tensions, to which the authorities tried to adapt through regulatory and policing measures. As a result, local law enforcement agencies were tasked with restraining illegal emigration within the boundaries of the county. Objective. The purpose of this article is to study the emigration processes in Ung County at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. By using police and gendarmerie reports from that period, the author seeks to demonstrate, through specific cases, the features of legal and illegal emigration of that era. Methods. The research is based on archival sources, primarily the documents from fond No. 6 (materials of the Uzhhorod City Magistrate) and fond No. 7 (materials of the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Ung County). Based on these sources, a statistical analysis is conducted, along with the reconstruction of individual life stories of emigrants. In addition to archival documents, an important part of the study involves the examination of legislative acts that regulated the activities of emigration agencies and sought to establish legal boundaries for the large-scale emigration wave characteristic of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The research methodology combines source analysis and a comparative-historical approach, allowing the integration of macro-level socio-economic processes with micro-level individual destinies. Results. The findings of the study indicate that the main driving forces behind emigration were land shortage, chronic poverty, and economic dependency. Archival documents reveal the forms of illegal migration, the activities of human smugglers, and the limited effectiveness of law enforcement authorities. According to the sources, emigration affected not only the economic structure of the region, but also deeply transformed the demographic and social profile of Ung society. Conclusions.The conducted analysis proves that state regulation failed to eliminate the structural socio-economic causes of emigration. Despite the efforts of local administration and law enforcement agencies, the process continued. The sources demonstrate that the authorities’ measures could not deter individuals and groups engaged in the illegal organization of departures, which, in the long term, led to serious demographic and social problems in the history of Ung (Uzhhorod) County. The study presents newly discovered archival sources that reveal the mechanisms of illegal migration and the institutional responses of local law enforcement authorities in the Ung