Under the Old Poor Law internal migrants moved from one jurisdiction to another when they crossed parochial boundaries. Following the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 central government took an enlarged and expanding part in welfare. As it did so, the entitlement to welfare of immigrants from overseas was scrutinised at a national level in a way that was analogous to the manner in which the status of internal migrants had previously been scrutinised at a parochial level. Having established this analogy, the essay asks whether the entitlement to welfare of outsiders improved or deteriorated over time and seeks to account for the broad trends.