The term "diaspora" comes from the Greek spiro, which means "I scatter". It usually refers to populations chased out of their country and who maintain emotional, cultural, economic and political bonds with each other across borders. In France, the Jewish and Armenian diasporas are the best known; they hark back to a lost land, the departure point for a life in which mobility has set the tempo.
The word "refugee" should not be confused with the word “asylum seeker”. An asylum seeker is a person who submits a request for asylum in order to acquire refugee status. A refugee has been an asylum seeker, but not all asylum seekers are recognised as refugees.
It was in 1793 that revolutionary France declared in its new (never applied) constitution that the French people " grants asylum to foreigners banished from their homeland for reasons of freedom. – It refuses asylum to tyrants ". The Geneva Convention of July 28 th 1951 defines the refugee as a person who is afraid " owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion " should he have to return to his country. A refugee is therefore a person who has requested asylum in a foreign country and who has been recognised as having refugee status. In France, the Office Français de Protection des Réfugiés et Apatrides (OFPRA) examines requests for asylum and recognises refugee status where applicable. A residence permit bearing the word “refugee”, valid for ten years with a right to renewal, is then delivered. The Geneva Convention provided for temporal ("events that occurred before January 1 st 1951") and spatial ("in Europe") limitations to its application. These were removed by the New York protocol, ratified by France in 1971. Until that date, individuals recognised as refugees in France therefore came from European countries. Once the limitations were removed, citizens of other countries could claim refugee status. Refugees placed under the protection of France cannot return to their country: Refugee status is not permanent. Refugees can: a) give up their status if they believe that they no longer have anything to fear in their country and become a foreign resident like any other in France; b) have their status removed after a termination procedure (without losing the right to live in France); c) be naturalised and therefore no longer be foreigners in France.
An unaccompanied minor (UM) previously referred to in France as mineur isolé étranger (MIE) is a child under 18, of foreign nationality, who has arrived on French soil without being accompanied by one of their legal guardians or a legal representative. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), ratified by France, stipulates in its article 20 that: “ A child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment, or in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to remain in that environment, shall be entitled to special protection and assistance provided by the State, including children seeking asylum, refugees or migrants, without consideration of their nationality, immigration status or statelessness ”. UM arriving in our country are thus entitled to the same protection as any other child.
In the legal field, the term “foreigner” designates anyone who does not have the nationality of the State in which they live. In France, the term took on this meaning with the Revolution where, for the first time in history, the definition of “ qualité de Français ” (French status) entered into the Constitution. Since then, the legal definition of foreigner has varied according to changes in the notion of nationality – a term that entered the Académie Française ’s dictionary in 1835. Today foreigners are individuals born abroad of foreign parents, and young people under 18 born in France of foreign parents themselves born abroad. The right of foreigners to enter and stay on French territory is codified in a reference document, the Ordonnance of November 2nd 1945, which is modified by each new immigration law.
Foreigner – Immigrant – Emigrant – Expatriate – Stateless – Undocumented – Illegal immigrant – Refugee – Asylum-seeker – Outcast – Exile – Harraga – Displaced – Immigrant background – Of immigrant origin – Beur –… All these words express and designate the “Other”, the one arriving, the one living here. As is the case when numbers guide our thinking, words sort the desirable from the undesirable. Words express the world, convey/betray how it is perceived, create the foundations for hospitalities or suspicions.
The floor of the Hall of Honour, the Forum, the auditorium and the Marie-Curie Hall on the ground floor of the Palais de la Porte Dorée is covered with mosaics stretching over 2,500 m². These were made by the Établissements Gentil & Bourdet, founded in 1901 by the two ceramist-architects Alphonse Gentil (1872-1933) and François Bourdet (1874-1952).
A key figure in Art Deco aesthetics, Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, one of the most famous decorators of the 1930s, designed all the furniture in the Africa Salon at the Palais de la Porte Dorée, the state room which, during the 1931 Colonial Exposition, served as the reception office of the Minister of the Colonies, Paul Reynaud.