So what did Marx mean by this?

[BIG BROTHER]

Hey comrades I know by all means Marx was an internationalist Revolutionary, how ever in the manifesto the following appears when he makes a list of demands and actions communist would should take

"Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable...

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels."

Now like I said before I know Marx is not a fascist or anything like that, so what I wonder is what is the historical context of measure number 4? I wanna understand why this made sense when the Manifesto came out, were most immigrants back then bourgeois for example?

[Kléber]

Well Marx himself was an immigrant and emigrant to many countries during his flight across Europe, and he had his property confiscated by various national police agencies, so he should have phrased it more precisely. By "emigrants" I think he is referring only to members of the ruling class who would flee from the revolution with their money and jewels, like French and Russian émigrés.

[ComradeOm]

Kléber has it right. Note that Marx refers to 'emigrants', not 'immigrants'. For Marx, writing in 1848 and in the shadow of 1789, this would have referred exclusively to the wealthy émigrés who had fled France and established foreign bases (Koblenz being the most obvious) from which to threaten the new revolutionary state. Hence Marx is arguing that those elements of the ruling class that flee from a country experiencing revolution should have their (not inconsiderable!) possessions confiscated by the new state. This would both weaken the counter-revolutionary forces and reduce the potential for a later 'restoration' of these same émigrés

[BIG BROTHER]

This makes so much sense!

Thank you folks!