Colonial Migrants and Racism: Algerians in France, 1900–62

315 Pages·1997·18.74 MB·English

by  Neil MacMaster (auth.)

COLONIAL MIGRANTS AND RACISM
Also by Neil MacMaster
SPANISH FIGHTERS: An Oral History of Civil War and Exile
Colonial Migrants
and Racism
Algerians in France, 1900-62
Neil MacMaster
Lecturer in the School of Modern Languages and European Studies
University of East Anglia
Norwich
First published in Great Britain 1997 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-333-68700-0 ISBN 978-0-230-37125-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230371255
First published in the United States of America 1997 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-16501-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
MacMaster, Neil, 1945-
Colonial migrants and racism : Algerians in France, 1900-62/ Neil
MacMaster.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-16501-7 (cloth)
I. Algerians-France-History-20th century. 2. Immigrants
-Government policy-France. 3. France-Emigration and immigration-
-History-20th century. 4. Algeria-Emigration and immigration-
-History-20th century. 5. Racism-France. 6. Algeria-History-
-Revolution, 1954-1962-Influence. I. Title.
DC34.5.A4M33 1996
305.892'765044'0904-dc20 96-32471
CIP
© Neil MacMaster 1997
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1997 978-0-333-64466-9
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
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with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I
06 05 04 03 02 01 ()() 99 98 97
Contents
List of Maps, Tables and Figures vi
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
1 Colonial Destruction of Algerian Society 22
2 Kabylia and the Migrant Tradition 34
3 Emigration: The Early Years, 1905-18 50
4 Departure and Employment 67
5 Life in the Enclave 84
6 Islam and the Village 103
7 Working-class Racism 118
8 Elite Racism and the Colonial Lobby 134
9 Policing and Surveillance in France 153
10 Colonial Crisis and Emigration, 1930-54 172
11 Emigration and the Algerian War, 1954-62 189
Conclusion 207
Appendix 223
Notes 226
Bibliography 280
Index 298
v
List of Maps, Tables
and Figures
Maps
1 Regions of Algerian emigration to France (1949) 35
2 Algerian workers in France (1937) 77
Tables
1.1 Total hectares owned by colons and number of
settlements created or expanded 30
4.1 The regional location of Algerians, 1937-68 78
8.1 Supervisor ranking of foreign workers in the
Paris car industry, 1926 151
AI Statistics of port registered movement between
Algeria and France 223
Figure
1 Algerian departures and returns from France,
1914-49 17
vi
Acknowledgen1ents
A generous grant from the British Academy enabled me to
carry out archival research in the summer of 1988 in Aix-en
Provence and Algiers, just prior to the beginning of the crisis
that has since made Algeria inaccessible to Europeans. I owe
a large debt to the numerous librarians who have helped me
in so many ways in Britain, France and Algeria, but in particu
lar to the ever friendly staff of the Inter-Library Loan service
at the University of East Anglia, Ann Wood, Sue Julier and
David Harris. Without them this book would not have been
possible. Phillip Judge of the School of Environmental Sci
ences at UEA designed the maps with his usual professional
ism. David Seddon kindly read the manuscript in its entirety
and made a number of valuable suggestions for its improve
ment. Needless to say any remaining flaws are entirely my own.
Last but first comes Mary MacMaster for her tireless support
and humour when faced with the routine anti-social eccentri
cities of the researcher and writer.
NEIL MACMASTER
Vll
Introduction
During the last fifteen years immigration, the integration of
ethnic minorities, and racism have become central issues in
French politics. A 1990 opinion poll found that immigration
was the second most important domestic concern after social
and economic inequality.1 The intense political debate as to
the future position of ethnic minorities within France, whether
they will gradually merge with the host society or constitute an
indigestible enclave which threatens the integrity of the nation
'one and indivisible', has invariabJ; centred on the position
of the 'Arabs', the North Mricans. Among the minorities of
Maghrebian origin or descent, the Algerians stand out as a par
ticular object of hostility, the group that is perceived to epitom
ise all that is most alien and threatening to French identity.
The racist targeting of North Mrican immigrants or their
descendents, the 'second generation' Beurs, in incidences of
abuse, assault and murder is higher than for any other minor
ity group. 3 In recent years, particularly after the right-wing
Charles Pasqua became Minister of the Interior in 1993, the
Beurs have been a constant target of police harassment which
has generated explosive tensions and rioting in the huge, run
down council estates of the outer suburbs.
Two explanations are generally offered to explain why 'Arabs'
have been a particular object of hatred and discrimination.
Firstly, there exists a widespread dislike of cultural difference
and in particular of Muslim identity, a dislike that found ex
pression in the extraordinary debate over the 'foulards' affair
of 1989 when three girls were suspended from school for
wearing headscarfs.4 Recently anti-Arab feeling has reached
new heights because of the fear attached to Islamic fundamen
talism and the bombing campaign of the Armed Islamic Group
(GIA) in France. A second cause of French hostility is the
historic legacy of the Algerian War. At the end of the war in
1962 about one million European settlers, the pieds noirs, were
'repatriated' to France while over two million French soldiers
had seen service in Algeria. The mass exodus of the settlers
and the return to civilian society of armed forces personnel
who had a first hand experience of bloody colonial war and
1
2 Colonial Migrants and Racism
defeat injected a particularly virulent strain of racism into
French society. This in part accounts for the hard-core ele
ment of extreme-right militants and activists that have been so
prominent in the rise of the Front National, a party led by the
ex-paratrooper Le Pen.5 For many the Algerian presence on
French soil was the ultimate insult: the former colonial sub
jects, perceived as inherently inferior, had not only been the
victors but were now colonising the land of the 'civilised'
masters.
One of the purposes of this book is to argue that the pro
cesses through which Algerians became a target of racism and
discrimination originated well before the War of 1954-62 in
an earlier phase of colonialism. On the outbreak of the Alge
rian War in November 1954 migration to France had already
existed for half a century. The history of this early phase of
labour and military recruitment to serve the needs of the
metropolitan economy and armed forces provides an insight
into the genesis and growth of racism, the processes through
which European society began to categorise non-European
migrants as inherently inferior outsiders. This early colonial
development, which was already under way in 1910-20, estab
lished deep-rooted patterns of stereotyping, marginalisation and
discrimination that have continued to leave a deep imprint on
French society.
One reason for the relative neglect of non-European im
migration into Europe before 1945 is that it has often been
assumed that the arrival of 'Third World' migrants dates es
sentially from the period after 1945 when labour shortages
and dynamic economic growth led to the recruitment of Mro
Caribbeans, North Mricans, Asians and others. In recent years,
however, specialists have begun to recognise not only that there
was an earlier immigration but that the position of minorities
in Europe cannot be properly understood without reference
to an earlier phase of colonialism. Scholars have begun to
turn with increasing interest to the longue duree of immigration
into Europe to uncover the roots of contemporary racism and
ethnic marginalisation.
In a general European context the two societies with the
most significant history of early colonial immigration were
Britain and France, the two outstanding imperial powers at
the turn of the century, which together controlled enormous