After the war the racialization of differences in skin color continued. In 1918 the French government began to expell colonial workers as quickly as possible, judging that the country was not ready to become a multiracial society. After 1918 the French government sent colonial workers home as quickly as possible, judging that the country was not ready to become a multiracial society. (stovall) However, a prewar demographic stagnation in addition to an active population amputated by war efforts left France unable to face postwar economic chalenges as well as the threat of depopulation. The new demand for immigration emerged from WWI and led to the massive immigration of the 1920s, bringing the total number of foreigners living in france to 1.600 000, this is 6.5% of french population. Differences with wartime immigration focus not only on the volume but also on the composition of this new influx, wich no longer consisted of colonial immigrants, but almost entirely contained European immigrants, most of wich were Italian, Polish and Spanish.131 (stovall) European immigration was certainly supported by french economy, which stuck ro its view of non-white workers as inadequate and therefore to be left home. Renewing arguements for European immigration were provided by demographic considerations/concerns. The first signs of demographic transition appeared at the end of the ninetienth century, throuhout the interwar period, with exeption of a short baby-boom from 1920 to 1923, France's birth rate resumed to fall, facing depopulation in the late thirties. This worrying tendency gave birth to a new ideology, known as pronatalism.. In its demand for immigration the movement put a new emphasis on assimiliabilty. As degrees of assimiliability were reflected in racial categories, post-war immigration got provided with a racial dimension. Determined to increase the french race without changing it fundamentally, pronatalists judged only occidental europeans appropriate/ should be allowed to enter the country... czech, pol, rummenia, sp it, were second-rated, assimiliation with Africans and Asians was considered impossible.Pro-natalists promoted a wide range of measures to stimulate population, along with restrictions on immigration, pronatalists demanded higher penalties on abortion and the distribution of birth control devices and official support of intermarriage and naturalisation. As pronatalist ideology became a vital part of political culture of third republic it had a meaningfull impact on legislation and consequently it influenced immigration policies However, the new laws that were voted or old ones that were adjusted were not less discriminative as they only appealed to appropriate foreigners, excluding others, seeking to remake the french family.
Immigration throughout the twenties was coordinated by racial categorisation, a priori discriminating coloured people, yet the influx of a great amount of immigrants, ethnically similar to the french population, didnot garantuee an harmonious coorelation. Although it didn't result in a colour based racism, post war immigration did give reason to a series of new stereotypes and discriminations. At their arrival foreigners discovered a very distinct society, ruled by modernistic and capitalistic values. The shock of the exil often made them search for each other and gather together in “petites Italies” or “petites Espagnes”, where social and eating habits, religious and national traditions stayed alive. However the defence of their national identity did not prevent them, in contradiction to their colonial counterparts, from integrating french society. Their profession, political and religios engagement, education and daily life contacts facilitated the assimiliation of both cultures and can therefore be looked at as important factors of integration. Citizens and foreigners met on the workfloor, in the street, pub, church or cinema. Integration of such an enormeous amount of people made the imigration phenomenon much more present and visible in french society, but as contacts between french citizens and their foreigners multiplied, so did the anxieties.
Non-colonial immigration reinforced old agitations and created new. Most common were concerns about hygienic and sanitary dangers and crime. The figures of interwar France seem to justify certain of these fears. In 1927 the foreign population in france consisted of 6%, yet it was responable for 8% of the hospitalisations. However several factors are to be taken into account. Emlpoyment in hard, dangerous and tiresome jobs, ignorance about hygienic rules, changement of climat and poor living conditions made them more vulnreable to working accidents and diseases. Paradoxically, these specific conditions reinforced perceptions of immigrants as a threat to public health. Likewise, fear of foreign crime seemed to correspond to reality. From 1926-29, foreigners represented an average of 9% of the french population, but 25% of crimes. Again specific circumstances seem to aggravate the situation. (schor) The immigration population is characterised by an overall dominance of young men, ignorant, poor and beyond that, a demographic group with more taste for certain types of crime. These types of crimes or available for discussion as well. Foreigners more often violated against administrative rules and regulations, such as clandestine entry and identity card fraud, which only appeal to foreigners and are thus incessable to native people. Although immigrant crime was not immune for assassinations, there is a profound distinction between the high profile crimes wich immigrants are mostly associated with and the administrative infringments they are most often convicted for. Nevertheless, these moderating elements hardly ever reached the french public, who were convinced that french society was suffering a sanitary and moral contamination.(schor)
The thirties brought about a new political and economic context. and consequently new discriminating behaviour. The Great depression hit France in a profound way and it didn't take french society long to reinforce old perceptions of imported labour. Once again foreign workers were seen as a severe threat/ posing a severe threat, that must be removed. As Pierre Amidieu du Clos stated: “Nous ne souffrons pas d'une crise de chömage national, mais d' une crise d' invasion étrangère”. Ideas like these were very easily implanted in the mind of french society andsoon they became a popular subject of banal conversations (in pub, metro,.....). In this context radicalisation and xenophobic reflex, as it developped in the early thirties, seemed almost natural. Much victims of crises form groups for defence of french labour, scanding “france au francais”, “le travail au france d'abord”, at manisfestations. Demands to secure national labour are arising from hardly every section of society and every political ideology. The attempt of the Extreme Right to exploit these tensions wasn't quite surprising, but even the PCF, the french communist party, and the CGT, the non-communist trade union, requested the reduction of foreign labour and yhe priority of french workers. Only few people are willing to stand up against these old accusations, being the french employer, the economic benefitair of foreign immigration, and certain members of the Left wich appoints the system of capitalism instead of foreign labour as responsible for the crises. Nevertheless these groups gaine less sympathie for their arguments and soon after 1931 measrues are taken to restrict the acces of foreign labour into the franch labour market, soon followed by repatriations. ????????
Anxiety wasn't solely economically inspired, the danger of political difficulties in the early thirties seemed very real to french society. Obviously the notion of foreigners as a threat to the political status quo was not new. Fears of a widespread distribution of fascist ideology through italian residents had been present ever since Mussolinis victory in 1922. However the scale of the problem expanded. The early thirties stood for an intensifacation of repression in European dictatures, prosecutions of jewish population, the imperialistic attitudes of fascist Italy and The Third Reich and the triumph of Franco in Spain. Political violence and extremism brought many of its victims to France amongst other countries. Schor 123) France, considering itself as an asylum for political refugees, did honour to its reputaion and widely opened its fronteres. However, this attitude of generosity changed, as new immigrants brought about new problems. Inhabitants of Austrie, Sarrois and Czechoslovaqie represented marginal groups in France and consequently they were granted little attention. Other victims of german imperialism that turned to france were less fortunate. The increasing presence of jews struck deep roots in interwar France and fuelled the anti-semitic propaganda, which was not a new phenomen. Earlier on, France had experienced he Dreyfus-affair, wich can be seen an anti-Jewish campaign, that aroused a wave of hathred in the 1890s. Anti-semitism distinguishes itself from the other kinds of discrimination against political immigrants, as it can simply not be explained as a reaction to the threat jews posed to the political status quo. The ideology was certainly discriminating, as it propagated a collection of ideas opposing and hostile towards jews, but it seems to be more related to the firts type of racism, although it was based on cultural and religious grounds rather than on ethnicity. It was common for anti-semitist to cover up their hathred using old arguements such as economic concurrence, their alliance with syndicats, france-maconerie, the left and to a certain extent they were held responible for the triumph of front populaire. To put it simply, Jews were accused of everything that went wrong in interwar france. Again hosility nourished violence both verbal, with common used expressions such as “sale juif”, and physical, the most famous example being the attack on the 64 yaer old leader of the front populair Leon Blum on 13/02/1936.
Another group that was soon to be demonised were Spanish dissidents. The immigration of catalans in 1939 brought about the largest single refugee influx, bringing the spanish population present in interwar france to a total of 500 000. At first they arose feelings of compassion among french citizens. But compassion turned into reservation, wich turned into hostility. The refugees were accused of introducing diseases, revolutionary ideas, crime and economic concurence on french soil. Immigration of non-whites is reintroducing old problems, once associated with colonial immigration and transplanting new problems to old stereotypes.
The presence of European immigrants in french society, however, seems to have evoked much less problems in comparison with the attitudes expressd towards their colonial counterparts.
Their profession, political and religios engagement, education and daily life contacts were important factors of integration and facilitated the assimiliation of both cultures. Integration of such an enormeous amount of people made the imigration phenomenon much more present and visible in french society and as contacts between french citizens and their foreign counterparts multiplied so did the anxiety.
“France as a child in need of a father/parent” Vadertje staat als actieve player in immigration phenomenon role of the state in interwar french society
paternal government (regimen paternale) which is the most despotic government of all, the citizens being dealt with by it as mere children.
Immigration policies were set by the state but highly influenced by employers and pronatalist movements. If France was to capaitalise its military victory in economic expansion: labour supplies were to be secured. (not really government policy on immigration). The First World War did not establish an official immigration policy, instead negotiation of labour agreements with foreign governments provided france with the workforce it needed. The government not only seeked for sources of foreign labour but controlled their mobility as well via two methods of controlling. The first one consisted of the establishment of labour depots, wich offered immigrants work in occupations dessignated for foreign labour. The second means of control was the identity card for foreign workers, wich limited the geographical freedom of the immigrant as well as the places of employment. (cross) (limit and police job mobility) In its attempt to assure employers of adequate supplies of foreign labour and provide french labour with the occupations they desire, the the french government recruited foreign workers in high numbers, than relegated them into the most undesirable, poorly paid, jobs separating them from their french colleagues, which were free to move within the labour market and improve their economic, financial as well as their social position. The Great Depression was responsible for a change in immigration policies most significantly represented by the law of the 10th of August 1932. This legal agreement, consisted of numerous decrees, provided for the protection of national labour, the limitation of foreign labour and the beginning of repatriations of foreign workers. The law was intended to close the sluices wich the treaties had opened. The pronatalist movement, however, posed a reverse effect on immigration policies. They perceived the threat of depopulation as a failure of the french population wich seemed incapable or unwilling to fulfill its civilian duty of procreation. Neither way, if the french population was not able to prevent france's demographic decline, foreigners had to be taking in.
Two institutions were created by parliament: conseil superieur de la natalité forum for discussion of birth rate isuue: advisory role but als figured as pressure group and Fête des mères significant at the time as the first official state recognition of the job of motherhood.
Existaence of a lively popular culture articulated around the chilf the future of the nation and the reproductive duty of french people.
, of which some got trough parliament. In the early twenties, laws were voted to put sentences on abortion, to restrict the distribution of birth control devices, to increase family allowances. Family policy in France was institutionalised in 1938 with the introduction of the Family Code.
Law of 1920 sought to raise birth rate solely by repressive measures against abortion and propaganda for contraceptives. It did not prevent the birth rate to continue falling, after a baby-boom in 1920-23: short. 1932 law obliged companies tocontribute to and distribute family allowances
Legislation on ........culminated in the code familial contained an assortment of laws: tax advantages, special assistance for peasant families, further repressive measures against abortion and a reorganisation of family allowances. Indirectly law of 1927 ........designed to facilitate the dual proces of assmilation and integration.
Intermariage and naturalisation, were regarded to as ways to stimulate assimiliation. Again adaption in legislation was achieved. In 1927 the law that proscribed that women who married foreigners lost their nationality was reversed and a law an naturlisation was adjusted to help fix the most desirable foreign elements permanently in France. These new laws were not less discriminative as they only appealed to appropriate foreigners, excluding others, seeking to remake the french family.
Economic and demographic concerns were only part of a broader context of fear that fed immigration policies. This anxiety was present before WWI, but during the Great warit culminated in a series of racial attacks and race riots. The French governments reaction to racial violence was a rather peculier one, that is a policy of segregation (encadremant): Rather than to promote the integration of colonial workers into french society and scale back the differences, Colonial laborers were employed and accommodated in isolation from their French counterparts. However, “Isolation as a means for social peace”, seemed to have a reverse effect, underlining the immigrants exotism and threat to french workers employment and made them even more visable and vulnerable. In Brest for example the concentration of north-africans in military barracks enabeld french soldiers to shoot them like fish in a barrel, as Tyler Stovall put it., The oposite efect of such a policy seemes almost so logical, that one could question its motivation, that is, to prevent racial conflict. A policy of segregation can only be interpretated as a measure of fear, anxious of damaging dichotomy between empire and metropole french government attempted to transplant colonial conditions and reproduce colonial racial hierarchies on French soil. (stovall)
there doesn't seem to be a united, clear, solid ideology behind immigration policies. They took shape in reaction to the demands of french society and consisted of very diverse measures. To secure french society in terms of individuals as in terms of a nation.
REDEFINING FRENCH RACE THROUGH IMMIGRANT PERCEPTIONS
The question of immigration undermined the ideal of the french republic in a profound way, as it effected its three pillars. “Freedom” of foreign workers and soldiers was limited by the french governmentin an attempt to get a grip on the phenomenon of immigration. Means of control were seggregation, identity cards, labour treatments and exclusion from political life. More violating to their privacy was perhaps the attempt to subscribe foreigners in the repopulation of the french race, as the formerly private sphere of procreation assumed a more prominent role in public life.
The doctrine of “Egalitarism” was initially reffering to the inequality of political rights and ment to gice every member of the republic unrestrained acces to the citizen body and this way destroy existing political and social divisions. Regarding to the political rights of foreigners in intewar France it seemed that these divisions were deliberatky kept alive. Although both colonial as europen immigrants reserved a certain amount of civil rights, they were kept out of the most vital parts of french society. For example they were given the right of organistation but they were not unionised or allowed to participate in french political life, nor in a passive neither in an active way. The term “Brotherhood” invites one to reflect upon the statute foreigners held in french society aside from his legal identity. This doctrine stand for the unification of men through similar backgrounds, professions, social positions, religions, ideologies or interests. Interwar frence didn't connote a lack of unifying factors, certainly regarding to foreigners and women, but these didn't bring them closer together or gave them any sort of “class conscious”.
WWI and the next twenty peacefull years, would mark a powerful violation of the heritage of the French revolution. “Liberté, égalité et fraternité” simply didn't seem to appeal to foreign elements in french society, instead they were granted a sort of "colonial citizenship", or unequal membership in the republic.
CONCLUSION
Immigration was a highly debated issue in interwar France. Reason for the arising controversy was the voluminous influx of immigrants during and after WWI, which marked the beginning of a modern large-scaleimmigration. Nourished by prejudice, but most of all, by anxiety the phenomenon had a profound impact on/ struck roots in french society. But can one cuncluded on the bases of attitudes, perceptions, feelings and the way they were expressed, that french interwar society was a racist one? In three cases you can distinguish racial values amongst french behavior. WWI the french government was to draw heaviliy on the reserves of manpower available to her in the colonial territories across the mediterranean. The attacks and violence expressed to them can be put in a context of wartime moral crisis but were undoubtebly inspired by pure, skin-colout based, racism. During the interwar period, a series of severe discriminations were expressed towards european immigrants. Although, they were not imune to stereotypes and prejudice, dislikes had more to do with the economic and political curcomstances of the day than with specific characteristics of the newcomers. A great part of this discriminative behaviour can be interpretated as an attempt to secure ist own political and economic position. One exeption is to be made considering the intolerance towards jews, which had to face hathred and racism, based on religious and cultural grounds, and therefore can be defined as antisemitic acts. The discriminations against jews can simply not be explained as an attempt to secure its position in scoiety as jews never posed a greater threat than any other population, not in an economical neither in a political way. Finally racist doctrines were carried out by pronatalists, concerned with the continuing fall of France's birth rate. The impulse to racial hierarchicalisation, categorising races on the bases of their assimiliability, or in other words their resemblance to the french race, can certainly be identified as acts of racism.
It must be taken in consideration that immigration policies didn't realy had an extenuating effect on the situation. Maybe, more than economic and demographic factors, policies shaped the size of antagonism and social opposition towards this new component of french society. Immigration policy was never driven by any other ideology than opportunism. Immigrants were to serve their host countrys war effort as well as its economic and demographic growth, but were only seldom protected by the french government. Racial attacks were never convicted but answered by an unsufficient policy of separation, eonomic protection was outlawed as immigrants didn't reserve the right to unionise themselves and an improvement in living conditions was not likely to happen as they weren't granted a political voice. Ofcourse policies work in both ways, they are just as much influenced by the public opinion as they are instigating the frenh population.
Although the latter was certainly discriminative and exclusionist, one can conclude that they were not more prone to discrimination or racism, than any other population, as racial attacks, anti-semitism, the Great depression, and in a lesser extent demographical concerns, affected a great part of Europe. But it might be expereinced more shocking in french society when one consideres its republican tradition.
