Paris

A History of Migrations

Paris City-World, first tourist city of the globe, with its fabulous architectural heritage, famous museums, grand boulevards. Paris Ville-Lumière, which over the centuries has attracted so many people from everywhere as so many promises of a better future, like a firmament of lights that have come to illuminate the capital with their presence.

Over the centuries Paris has welcomed millions of foreigners attracted by the hope of a better future. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-19th century, Breton, Auvergne or Normandy peasants arrived, along with Italians, Belgians, and Spaniards. Then in colonial times, Paris received successive migrations from the territories of the French Empire, which intensified in the 20th century with the two world wars.

In the 1950s, there were many migrants from Algeria, Morocco, and Senegal who came to work in the factories of Ile de France, or the Portuguese, who specialized in construction. In the 1970s, Vietnamese and Cambodians arrived, fleeing for political reasons.

The new generations born and raised in France demand equal rights, fight against racism and discrimination, but also for the right to recognition of their forgotten history. At once a space of integration and exclusion, Paris and its region cultivate this ambivalence. After one hundred and fifty years of immigration, the Paris of diversity is a place where memories intersect and new identities are invented.