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Reflecting debate around hospitality and the Baltic Sea region, this open access book taps into wider discussions about reception, securitization, xenophobia and Nordic attitudes towards migrants and strangers. The Baltic region and its history of being a connective space of cosmopolitan encounters during the past millennium, offers a unique opportunity to isolate, investigate, and exemplify situations of (in-)hospitality throughout history. Focusing on coastal and urban areas, the collection presents an overview of the responses of host communities to guests and strangers in the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, from the early eleventh century to the twentieth. The chapters investigate why and how diverse categories of strangers including migrants, war refugees, prisoners of war, merchants, missionaries and vagrants, were portrayed as threats to local populations or as objects of their charity, shedding light on the current predicament facing many European countries. Emphasizing the Baltic Sea region as a uniquely multi-layered space of intercultural encounter and conflict, this book demonstrates the significance of Northern Europe to migration history.