World War One, an Overstated Rupture in the History of European Migrations? Reflections from the French Case

Fabrice Langrognet, University of Oxford (Faculty of History)

This paper discusses the extent and legitimacy of the First World War as a watershed in the history of migrations in Europe, with France as a primary vantage point. It contends that while historians of migration have become increasingly aware of the need for transnational connections, they have too often taken chronological divisions for granted, in particular when it comes to the two World Wars. The paper begins with an effort to document this lack of reflexivity with regard to the first quarter of the 20th century and offer an analysis of its factors, among which the enduring hypertrophy of the macro, the political and the national in both historical narratives about, and archival treatment of, European migrations. Taking stock of the fairly recent scholarship on foreigners and colonial subjects during the First World War itself, it goes on to show that such studies have mostly remained enclosed within the traditional dates of 1914 and 1918–9. As a consequence, they have rarely connected migration flows, patterns and policies from that particular context with those that came before and after the conflict. Thereby, they led to overstating in various respects the rupture brought about by the conflict in terms of migration structures and experience. Drawing on an extensive investigation into a particular sample of migrants from the Paris area between the 1880s and the 1930s, the paper aims at highlighting the connections between migration and migrants before, during, and after the war. It claims that overlooking those connections, far from being a purely epistemological issue, has important implications for current memory-based controversies, in France as elsewhere, over ethnic minorities and national membership.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 114. Negotiating Historical Narrative