Until now, migration historians have tended to study the movements of poor populations towards wealthy countries. For that reason, the presence in France of a population that does not correspond to the usual patterns, originating from the United States of America, the wealthy country par excellence, sparked our curiosity…
Since February 24 th 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, Europe has been confronted with a migratory and humanitarian drama of a kind not seen since the end of World War 2. The continent has experienced the “unimaginable”: an unimaginable that has been the fate of other regions in the world in Africa, Asia or the Near East, a fact that researcher Matthieu Tardis reminds us of ( Le Monde , May 17 th 2022). Although Europe approached the reception given to Syrian refugees during the crisis of 2015 with disunity, in 2022, they took a united stand, although the efforts were unequally distributed.
Use of the term “immigrant” became widespread in the mid-20 th century to describe immigration by manual workers. Since 1945, it has been common to talk about immigrant labour or immigrant worker and, in everyday language, the term is tending to replace the word “foreigner”. From the early 1990s, “immigrant” became a statistical category, used by demographers to describe any person born a foreigner in a foreign country and residing in France. Hence an immigrant may not be a foreigner – as is the case for individuals born abroad who became naturalised French citizens. And a foreigner may not be an immigrant, if he was a foreigner born on French soil.
Confronted with the influx of millions of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, the reaction of solidarity was unanimous in Europe, from Poland to France, in the media and within political parties. On February 25 th 2022, on Europe 1, parliamentary representative for the MoDem party Jean-Louis Bourlanges declared that Ukrainians in France would represent “ high-quality immigration that we can draw benefit from ”. On February 28 th , the deputy Minister of Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari and the CEO of the SNCF group decreed that TGV and Intercité train fares would be free for Ukrainian refugees. Soon after, the question of according universal protection and right to asylum was raised. Hence on March 1 st , the CGT-rail workers union demanded that the free fares be extended to all refugees, considering that there was no reason to select “ good and bad refugees ”. Reacting to Mr. Bourlanges’ statement, journalist Yaël Goosz asked: “ so there are less useful refugees… Because they’re too different from us culturally? Not Christians or not Europeans? (...) As if we must call it ‘welcoming refugees’ when talking about Ukrainians, but ‘migrant crisis’ when referring to the fate of Iraqis, Syrians, or Afghans! ” (France Inter, March 2nd).
The French term "sans-papiers" describes any foreign person living in France without a residence permit. It resembles the term "clandestin", which appeared in political and administrative vocabulary in the late 19th century with the first measures strictly defining the terms of foreigners’ “right to residence”.
According to the Defender of Rights, discrimination happens when three elements come together: less favourable or unequal treatment of a person or group of people; due to criteria defined by the law (origin, disability, gender, religion, sexual orientation, physical appearance…); in a context determined by the law (rental of an item/property, sale, access to employment, to a social service etc…). Discrimination indicates a distancing of a person or group of people. This discrimination can damage the dignity or integrity of that person. It is illegal and reprehensible. Promoting inequality, insulting, threatening, as a result of origin or nationality, an ethnic group, a race, a religion, a language, or because of gender or sexual preference, a particular health condition or a disability are discriminating attitudes. The same applies to not providing a service (at a restaurant, hotel or nightclub) or refusing free housing or available employment for the same reasons. In these cases, discrimination is a crime, one that can be taken to court and punished with a fine and/or prison sentence.
Anti-Semitism targets people who belong or are assumed to belong to the Jewish community. The targets are many: a last name or first name, traditions or religious practices, life styles, a physical appearance, a trade or any other sign viewed as specific. Anti-Semitism develops prejudices and defamatory interpretations, hateful attitudes and verbal or physical aggressions. Anti-Semitism is forbidden by law in all democratic countries. Anti-Semitism has left its mark on the history of European countries several times, as in 1895 in France, with the Dreyfus Affair. It can become a political doctrine and draw inspiration from laws such as the 1940 Vichy laws on the status of Jews. It was one of the foundations of the Nazi regime and, starting with the Wannsee Conference (January 20 th 1942), led to the programming of the “final solution” that led 6 million Jews to deportation and the Shoah. After the Liberation, the Nuremberg Tribunal passed judgement on all Nazi crimes, inspired notably by anti-Semitism.
Racism is a form of discrimination based on the victim’s origins or ethnic or racial affiliations, whether real or assumed. Racism makes use of prejudice to devalue the person based on their physical appearance; it attributes character traits, abilities or physical or intellectual faults associated with clichés or stereotypes. Racism seeks to attack the person’s dignity and honour, to nurture hatred and encourage verbal or physical violence. It tends to spread false ideas to set humans against each other. Sometimes, it takes the form of an ideology, a theory explaining the inequalities between people, and thus proposes a hierarchy of human groups. Ideological racism began to develop in the 19th century with authors like Vacher de Lapouge, who wanted to create a biological basis for racism, but it became a real political system with apartheid in South Africa and the Nazism of the German Reich.