Pied-Noir Migration and Negotiations of European Identity

On July 3, 1962, the day Algeria officially declared itself independent of France following an eight-year war, West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer sat down with Charles de Gaulle in Paris to discuss European integration. Marking the news of the day, Adenauer said Algeria’s new status “frees France […] to devote itself more easily to its great tasks in Europe and the world.” His comment suggested that France faced a stark choice: the colonies or Europe. However, an examination of Algeria’s decolonization, and particularly the repatriation of the Europeans leaving Algeria (the pieds-noirs), reveals that France’s European aspirations and colonial policies intersected. 

Gaston Defferre’s career is emblematic of the overlap between European integration and decolonization. As France’s Overseas Territories Minister (1956-1957), Defferre participated in Treaty of Rome talks, pushing Eurafrique policies to integrate France’s overseas territories into the European Economic Community. Defferre was Marseille’s mayor when the pieds-noirs fled independent Algeria. The pieds-noirs were treated both as full French citizens and as refugees upon arrival and their ambiguous status led French officials to reexamine the state’s responsibility to its citizens. This paper examines how Defferre’s contribution to the national discussion of pied-noir rights was informed by his earlier role advocating colonial inclusion in European integration, and how notions of European identity shifted as France lost its empire. An analysis of Defferre’s personal papers and Ministry of Foreign Affairs documents about European integration begins to answer the question: How did the movements of decolonization and European integration influence and shape one another?