Colonial Migrants and Racism

This is the first comprehensive study in English of the earliest and largest 'third-world' migration into Europe. It explores the interrelationship between the colonial destruction of Algerian society and the creation of a reserve of cheap manpower that was tapped by the metropolitan economy and armed forces. The Berber and Arab peasants faced great hardship in the factories and slums of interwar France and responded by organizing social networks based on village and kin structures.

The French working class showed hostility to the 'alien' presence but organized racism was largely generated by colonial elites. Attempts were made to police migrants and to segregate them from Communist, nationalist and trade union influences that might be transmitted back to North Africa and undermine the colonial order.

Current anti-Arab racism is deeply rooted in this prewar movement to isolate Algerian migrant workers in France by presenting them as barbarian 'invaders', criminals and vectors of dangerous microbes.