Alien encounters: The jus soli and reproductive politics in the 19th-century fortress and colony of Gibraltar

In a place where land was scarce and military security paramount, population growth was perceived as Gibraltar's most insidious curse. While British law protected the rightful residence of those who were recognized by the early 19th century definition of Gibraltar “native,” colonial authorities realized that the local population was also increasing by other means. The tenet of the jus soli became one of Gibraltar's most notable weaknesses in attempting to control local population growth. Laws were enacted in a patchwork fashion, attempting to defeat any loopholes that might encourage large-scale immigration and the birth of alien offspring on the Rock. So far as alien/alien unions were concerned, the laws were straightforward, but problems ultimately arose for those local women and men who married aliens and who intended to remain in Gibraltar. Concerns over alien contributions to population growth seemed to reach crisis proportions in the 1860s and 1870s, but thereafter the burdens and difficulties imposed on that portion of the local population that opted to marry out eased substantially under the authority of a new governor.