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[Footkerchief]

The concept of an immigration officer strikes me as a little odd, flavor-wise, though maybe it's just the terminology tripping me up.  Is there any period-appropriate historical precedent for this?  I'm sure many rulers delegated the task to subordinates on an ad-hoc basis, but I'm not sure whether there was a formal position for it until recently.

I found several references to massive government-sponsored immigration during the Han Dynasty.  That's probably the best place to look for precedent, given the importance of bureaucracy in that period.  This book in particular.

[darkflagrance]

What kind of precedent are you looking for? The fact that people traveled and rulers have always sought to control them somehow should be sufficient logical basis.

I think the problem is just terminology. It's not as if the office of "immigration officer" is particularly grand and worth remembering in epics or even histories so that it has the same kind of recognition value as Duke or Baron. But the need has always existed.

[Footkerchief]

What kind of precedent are you looking for? The fact that people traveled and rulers have always sought to control them somehow should be sufficient logical basis.

I think the problem is just terminology. It's not as if the office of "immigration officer" is particularly grand and worth remembering in epics or even histories so that it has the same kind of recognition value as Duke or Baron. But the need has always existed.

Well, as I said, there's a difference between a fixed position to be filled, and an ad-hoc appointment.  In DF, that becomes the difference between the fortress having a dedicated immigration officer who does that job full-time, and just letting the mayor handle it or delegate the task to a random trusted friend.  It's indisputable that the need exists, and that DF should have a corresponding duty that can be assigned to an entity position.  Whether it deserves its own entity position is more ambiguous.  That's why I'm looking for precedent (and there's a good chance it exists, so don't think I'm shooting this down or anything).

e: from what I can tell from this partially-available source, the duty of handling migrants during the Ming Dynasty often seemed to fall on those maintaining the census registers.  Still looking for more info.  I keep seeing references to Confucian policies encouraging immigration, but can't find who was in charge of implementing those policies.

[Impaler[WrG]]

I agree with you Foot, the name is a bit clunky and un-medieval sounding.  Perhaps "Registrar" would be a better term, It doesn't sound too modern (Dictionary sources say it derives from Latin so its probably very old), conveys the rather clerical nature of the job and is flexible enough to add more duties too in the future if need be.  Only possible issue is that it might be confused with the Record Keeper, but the Record Keeper is really more of a QuarterMaster as they only keep records of supplies and not all records.

[father_alexander]

Well i think that we should have some sort of bookkepper like position that takes care of population, and with that, inmigrants, basically this guy would be the one that would count your population, maybe even be the one that counts the votes, he would be the one to inform about new children and so on, maybe in the future he would have even more important functions.

This guy would control inmigration in two ways, first do some sort of list of quantity of people and jobs you need, and then control inmigrants, i mean i dont think its impossible to expulse someone from a settlement, hell maybe even get him into jail, or something like that, also this should give you a quick way to give jobs to the inmigrants instead of having to search for them by yourself in the list.

I can think of two other ways to do this, either this task could be taken by the manager too, i mean its related to him after all

Or you could apoint a liaison yourself, hell you should even be able to send out a caravan yourself, why not?, but anyways, lets say you need some material, like an anvil and you need 2 carpentes, you inform this guy of that in a similar way to the normal liaison and he comes back with them, you could even pay some money to these inmigrants to make it easier for them to come.

I think the liaison and some sort of inmigration officer could both exist and be quite handy, i mean who dosnt want to get that soap maker you hate into jail, or execute him, or simply expulse him from the fort!

[Idiom]

Regardless of historical accuracy previously mentioned, this is a fantasy game, and this would be very useful to have.

[KenboCalrissian]

I'm in support of all three ideas in the OP.  And I agree, 'Immigration Officer' is too modern.  'Registrar' is a good alternative.

Since day one, I've wanted to be able to create a bustling marketplace that people from all over would flock to, and the current shop system just doesn't cut it.  I want my forts to have a mercantile district (in fact, I've had a megaproject idea for such a thing in mind for a while, just haven't had time to start it).  The problem is there isn't anything to do with the money generated, but perhaps there is some other reward to having one - perhaps it could attract citizens of other civs to live in your fort, creating sub-communities.

Random visitors, unfortunately there isn't much need unless you have some sort of attraction such as a mercantile district.  This is the only reason I'm in support of the idea, without it I could live without the random visitors.

[father_alexander]

I'm in support of all three ideas in the OP.  And I agree, 'Immigration Officer' is too modern.  'Registrar' is a good alternative.

Since day one, I've wanted to be able to create a bustling marketplace that people from all over would flock to, and the current shop system just doesn't cut it.  I want my forts to have a mercantile district (in fact, I've had a megaproject idea for such a thing in mind for a while, just haven't had time to start it).  The problem is there isn't anything to do with the money generated, but perhaps there is some other reward to having one - perhaps it could attract citizens of other civs to live in your fort, creating sub-communities.

Random visitors, unfortunately there isn't much need unless you have some sort of attraction such as a mercantile district.  This is the only reason I'm in support of the idea, without it I could live without the random visitors.

i dont really like the idea of a whle mercantile district, not so much for the idea itself since it would be cool to have that sort of comercial center in your city, its just that, imagine wen this actually happens, i mean, most of our fortresses are pretty sealed from the outside, mainly because this makes a good protection and because we dont get many visitors, if you suddently make a lot of people to come in, its going to be really hard to make a defence, maybe if these merchants that actually stay would come all together, stay and instead of geting more merchants you get new stock, new caravans come to leave the stocks for the diferent shops and then leave, this would still allow care in opening our doors (since they would all come at one time of the year) while allowing the whole merchants from other lands deal

[Virex]

That whole problem would become moot if dwarven guards could open gates to friends only. Then you don't need to handle the entrance all the time. Would be more akin to medival citties too. The baron wasn't constantly checking if there was someone on his doorstep, now was he?

[Impaler[WrG]]

GateKeeper Noble anyone?

[father_alexander]

now that would be awesome, do want

[Spoonfeed]

I wholeheartedly support the idea OP!

INIT options would be required for people with lesser machines(the extra pathfinding might be a bit harsh), and it could steer the game in a somewhat different direction.

Still, I'd love to have groups of adventurers visiting the fort because it happens to sell such fabulous Dog leather waterskins!

The idea has great potential!

GateKeeper Noble anyone?

Ohh yes, and makes his personality really shine through in his decisions;

"That dorf over there has a -Cave spider sock-, I HATE CAVE SPIDERS! CLOSE THE BRIDGE!"
-"But si.."
*Urist Mcdwarf, Duke has been crushed by a drawbridge*

[Safe-Keeper]

Then again, you can make a pretty good immigration control system by means of a room you can lock people into, and fortifications with ballistas on the other side... 

[Nobody1225]

I favor this in full--even to the random visitors.  (I have this vision of tourists coming to buy my microcline trumpets and slate amulets right from the source, for one thing, and then we load 'em down with poorly-dyed pig tail shirts, religious relics, surplus no-quality weapons as 'historical replicas', and over-priced wood carvings of local heroes.  If they want to eat, we charge them about four times what the locals would pay.)

[And strictly speaking, while the name 'tourist' is anachronistic, the idea isn't.  Long before there were tourists, there were pilgrims, and they did all the same things--travel far from home, spend lots of money on trinkets of questionable value, get fleeced or robbed, and therefore have various destinations compete heavily for their coin.]

I also think this would be a good direction to take things, since to take proper advantage of these features you'd need to have a bit more openness...as right now, there aren't a lot of reasons not to seal yourself up tightly.  Fine for a paranoid bunker or a dangerous outpost in the middle of velociraptor country, certainly, but a little weird for the major center of dwarven civilization that eventually attracts the dwarven monarch to make it their capital.  I mean, it's hard to be a closely involved part of the living breathing fantasy world that DF is to become when there's no advantage in doing anything but bunkering down with your FTW lever and conducting what little trade you do maintain under the imminent threat of drowning or magma death.

[Footkerchief]

[And strictly speaking, while the name 'tourist' is anachronistic, the idea isn't.  Long before there were tourists, there were pilgrims, and they did all the same things--travel far from home, spend lots of money on trinkets of questionable value, get fleeced or robbed, and therefore have various destinations compete heavily for their coin.]

Not just pilgrims, either.  There were people like Pausanias who just traveled out of personal interest -- part tourist, part amateur anthropologist.