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Ancient and modern

How ancient Athens handled immigrants

Requiring sponsors is not a new idea – it was happening in Aristotle’s time

7 November 2015

9:00 AM

7 November 2015

9:00 AM

Among all the arguments about how many non-EU immigrants we should let in, campaigners are proposing a scheme for private sponsorship of Syrian asylum seekers. The idea of sponsorship for immigrants goes back to Athens in the 5th century bc.

Metoikos (literally ‘household-changer’), our ‘metic’, was the category into which any non-Athenian wanting residence in Athens was placed.

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