Pass system

An internal passport is an identity document that may or may not be used by a country to control and monitor the internal movement and residence of its people. When passports first emerged, there was no clear distinction between internal and international ones. Later, some countries developed sophisticated systems of passports for various purposes and various groups of population. Uses for internal passports have included restricting citizens of a subdivided state to employment in their own area (preventing their migration to richer cities or regions), clearly recording the ethnicity of citizens to enforce segregation or prevent passing, and controlling access to sensitive sites or closed cities.

Currently, only Russia is known to still have internal passports as a part of their bureaucratic heritage, though it is no longer used to restrict the movement of people: a Russian internal passport is essentially an identification document in form of a booklet:.

Countries that currently have internal passports include:

Internal passports are known to have been issued and used previously by:

In many countries, the word "passport" is only used in modern language to denote a document issued for the purpose of international travel, which is subject to discretionary permission. Hence the widespread misconception that internal passports are necessarily the instrument of discretionary limitation of traveling and residence in countries that use them.

On the other hand, in post-Soviet countries, the word "passport" is implied to merely mean a primary identification document, especially if has the form of a booklet. Nevertheless, it is also extended by analogy to other forms of identification documents. For example, the proposed scheme to replace old-fashioned internal passport booklets with plastic identification cards in Ukraine still calls the latter "passports".

In 1885 the "pass system" was introduced in Canada, to restrict and control the movement of First Nations people within Canada. Instituted at the time of the North-West Rebellion, it remained in force for 60 years despite having no basis in law. Any First Nation person caught outside his reservation without a pass issued by an Indian agent was returned to their reservation or incarcerated.

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Wikipedia