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Workforce Immigrants . Workers Indochinese in France (1939 to 1952)....
Pierre Daum
Arles 2009
Book
Français - French
The book is divided into two parts.
The first part traces the history of this call for Indochinese labor to the outbreak of war to the last repatriations in 1952:
1. To the Origins of native workforce servicing (MOI)
2. Recruitment
3. The transportation by boat to France
4. Arriving in Marseille
5. First assignment: the weapons factory
6. The debacle
7. Life in the camps
8. Work
9. The origin of rice in the Camargue
10. The MOI in Vichy (the native workforce servicing (MOI)
11. Under German occupation
12. Relations with the French population
13. Love in Wartime
14. The Liberation
15. Nationalism, communism, Trotskyism
16. Indochinese St. Bartholomew in Mazargues camp, May 15, 1948
17. Repatriation
18. Those who remain
19. Wages, savings, dollars deposit
In the second part, the author offers a portrait of 25 former Indochinese workers from whom he was able to gather testimonies to prepare his study.
An interesting study on little known and little studied episode in the history of immigration and at the same time, colonization in France. As it was the case in 1914-1918, France made resort to workers at the outbreak of the War who were recruited from the colonies to replace the French who were mobilized. In 1939, 20,000 Indochinese "unskilled workers " were requisitioned and taken to the mainland tp be used in weapon factories. The great majority of them found themselves stuck in Francebecause of the defeat in 1940. They were employed throughout the whole duration of the war in industry or agriculture. Thus, the Camargue owes them the development of rice growing. The liberation and the end of the war did not mean a rapid return to Indochina, the last repratriations only being organized in 1952. The French authorities feared that the 25,000 Indochinese workers and soldiers located in metropolitan France might swell the ranks of resistance in the war that had broke out late 1946.
Based on the testimony of 25 former workers but also on archived documents and the few publications on the topic, Peter Daum describes accurately and in an impressive way, the living and working conditions close to the slavery of these workers and their exploitation by employers and service of the MOI (native workforce servicing).
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