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The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "any person has the right to leave any country, including his own". However, mobility, as a universal right, is not guaranteed for everyone. For the inhabitants of southern-hemisphere countries, due to a lack of resources, due also to not being able to obtain the necessary visas or authorisations, the borders remain closed. For citizens of developed countries, the border represents the prospect of travel, discovery, encounters or jobs. And nowadays, retirement. It is easier for western tourists to leave for Marrakech, Ouagadougou, Shanghai or New Delhi than for Africans, Asians or Turks to visit family, go shopping or be tourists in Paris or London.

New forms of migration are emerging, straddling several countries. They are generating new economic, spatial and identity dynamics. As Catherine Wihtol de Wenden writes: " migrants’ living space and knowledge have expanded and diversified. As global and transnational players, they represent a source of enrichment for the societies where they settle". The expansion of migration spaces is also one of the effects of tourism-related " mobilities". Another form of mobility that could disrupt the old paradigms of international migrations, the emigrant also becomes a migrant, in other words a “ player”, more interested in mobility than settling.

Several factors may be the cause of (new) migrations: socio-economic and of course political contexts in the departure countries and the arrival countries, demographic and economic divisions between countries and continents, gaps between levels of human development (life expectancy, education level, standard of living), globalisation (which, while increasing exchanges and encounters, is disrupting spaces and imaginaries), geopolitical and regional (re)configurations, new conflict zones, environmental devastation, changes in climate or legal structures (legislation on immigrant reception and residence, visa delivery…), not forgetting individual situations and aspirations, starting with those of women.

The Palais de la Porte Dorée was built between 1929 and 1931 based on plans and a project designed by the architect Albert Laprade (1883-1978), who turned it into one of the emblematic monuments of Art Deco architecture, a true total work of art, where the decorative elements (furniture and decor) have as much importance as the architectural elements.

A sculptor recognised for his monumental decors in the inter-war period, Alfred Auguste Janniot was the author of the bas-relief that graces the entire facade of the Palais de la Porte Dorée across a surface of over 1,130 m², a real technical feat achieved in under two years.