Taking mid-nineteenth century Belize as a case study, this article considers the role of migration in forming political, legal, and spatial geographies in a region with weak state institutions and disputed borders. The Caste War—a series of conflicts starting in 1847 in the southeastern Mexican state of Yucatán— resulted in the movement of thousands of people into the neighboring British settlement of Belize. This population movement reshaped the interface between the metropole and the settlement. This was a colony-defining moment in the development of Belize, leading to an extension of imperial control that eventually culminated in the transition to Crown colony in 1871. The refugee crisis was tied to broader Atlantic questions around asylum, law and empire. The benevolent treatment of refugees became the gauge of a “civilized” colony until the refugee crisis turned into a race crisis. This article examines how local administrators used a humanitarian discourse to enshrine white settler colonialism in a territory suddenly inhabited by a foreign-born multi-ethnic majority. The refugee label became a way to secure British sovereignty over the territory and its inhabitants, including non-British subjects, while extracting resources from the newcomers.

中文翻译：

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保护外国人：伯利兹-尤卡坦边境的难民危机，1847-71

本文以 19 世纪中叶的伯利兹为例，考察了移民在国家机构薄弱、边界有争议的地区形成政治、法律和空间地理的作用。种姓战争——始于 1847 年在墨西哥东南部尤卡坦州爆发的一系列冲突——导致数千人迁入邻近的英国定居点伯利兹。这种人口流动重塑了大都市和定居点之间的界面。这是伯利兹发展过程中决定殖民地的时刻，导致帝国控制的延伸，最终在 1871 年过渡到皇家殖民地达到高潮。难民危机与围绕庇护、法律和帝国的更广泛的大西洋问题有关。善待难民成为衡量“文明”殖民地的标准，直到难民危机演变成种族危机。本文探讨了地方行政人员如何利用人道主义话语在一个突然被外国出生的多民族占多数的领土上奉祀白人定居者殖民主义。难民标签成为确保英国对该领土及其居民（包括非英国臣民）拥有主权的一种方式，同时从新移民那里榨取资源。