Juan Carlos Sarazua sought to promote the inclusion of European populations because, given the vision of development they held, they saw European day labourers as more apt for the “development” of agriculture. In 1829 an order of the Assembly established that foreigners with a nature card had the same rights as a native in terms of national taxation, as was the case with tobacconists18. In a serious attempt to attract settlers, the formation of colonial companies was authorized in much of eastern and northern Guatemala in 1834. Tax exemptions and rights over land and production were to increase the population. Novel attempts in 1842 did not yield the expected results. The intention to populate the Caribbean coast was only possible with the arrival of the United Fruit Company at the end of the nineteenth century, which fostered the migration of workers from the entire Caribbean basin19. During the 1860s, two connected phenomena took place. The first was the beginning of the coffee boom in the country, a factor that completely transformed the country in just a few decades. The other, was the increasing arrival of foreigners with the intention of taking advantage of this new economic cycle. Colombians, Italians, Americans, but above all Germans, were incorporated into economic life. The government issued a new law on foreigners to take advantage of these newcomers. The law issued on February 29th, 1868 stipulated that new immigrants had to obey the laws of the country in order to obtain “naturalisation without the formalities that they require, substantiating the exercise of a profession, of trade or industry, and not having been convicted for some crime, and are exempted from direct contributions and military service”. This was compounded by an exemption from occupying municipal positions during ten years. In addition, for those who married a Guatemalan, these privileges were extended five years20. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the presence of foreigners in the country had increased to such an extent that they occupied central positions in the economy, as was the case with several German merchants and landowners, who had acquired a pre-eminent position in coffee and finance. The Immigration Act of 1909 made it clear that foreigners were divided into three categories. The first was formed by those who arrived without a contract but with the real intention of settling in the country. The second category was those hired by companies or individuals, which was quite common given the growing number of German coffee-growing farms or American companies. And the third, were those hired by the Government. This same law made it clear that only foreigners who “prove their morals and aptitudes” would be accepted (Article 1.). For this reason, the law affirmed that, beyond obeying the law and Guatemalan authorities, immigrants’ responsibility was also to comply with the commercial contracts that had brought them to the country and under no circumstances could they use the diplomatic channel for conflict resolutions. In exchange for this, the law guaranteed them, depending on the case in hand, land, the preservation of their previous nationality and the exemption form council or military positions (Art. III, VII, XI). At the same time, it prohibited immigration of people of the “Mongol race”, of criminals convicted for common crimes and people over 60 (Article IV). Chinese immigration, as in other 18 Pineda de Montt, Recopilación…p. 820. William Griffith Empires in the Wilderness: Foreign colonization and development in Guatemala, 1834-1844 University of North Carolina Press, 1965 y Steven Gillick, “Life and Labor in a Banana Enclave: Bananeros, The United Fruit Company, and the Limits of Trade Unionism in Guatemala, 1906-1931” Phd Diss..,; Tulane University, 1994. 20 Pineda, p. 841-42. Ver también Regina Wagner, Los alemanes en Guatemala, 1828-1944, Guatemala: Asociación Alejandro Von Humboldt, 1991. 19 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/4 - © 2020 Author 7