Attempts by government to control emigration centred on the issuing of identity certificates from the late 1930s. These were issued at the level of the district - with Chiefs cooperating with the colonial state to limit the extent of independent migration and the numbers of machona - lost ones.

 

Potential migrants were supposed to gain permission from their chiefs, pay all outstanding taxes and ensure that any family would be provided for in their absence, before being issued with a pass. For those emigrating through Wenela or Mthandizi, a proportion of their pay abroad would then be paid directly to the family and a further amount would be deffered until their return to the district - tying migrants to their local areas. Women were supposed to remain in Malawi, rooting their partners to their district and the Protectorate whilst they were abroad.

 

The success of the scheme though had considerable limitations. In 1941 officials reflected that "it is difficult to see how this pass scheme can ever work effectively...due to the fact that many thousands of Nyasalanders accustomed to work abroad have established their own connections, and partly to the known tenacity  of the African in retaining his freedom even at the cost of some inconvenience to himself".