The View from below: What We Learn from Local Migrant Histories

This paper considers the contributions made by historical studies of European migration that focus on the local—community or city—level. To illustrate the potential of this methodological approach, I will draw on my own research on North African migration to France in the post-WWII period. Traditional migration scholarship emphasizes the national frame, since immigration, nationality, and citizenship are defined and controlled by the nation-state. Yet, many state regulatory and welfare services were provided through regional governments, city halls, and local organizations. Thus, local case studies offer a window into the lived experience of migration. Smaller geographic limits also allow for broader topical boundaries, which reveal the intersection of migration policies with other issues whose influence may be direct (health, lodging, employment, education, welfare benefits, economic growth or decline) or indirect (war, visions for urbanization, ideas about community). I also suggest that local case studies may be enriched through a comparative approach. Comparisons highlight the differences that existed within national systems too often accepted as monolithic and uniform. Instead of assuming a singular or uniform national identity (to which migrants must try to conform), comparative local analyses provide a window into alternative notions of nationhood, community and belonging. In particular, local communities can alter their self-identity to include (or exclude) non-nationals. Finally, I look at how local migration histories take part in an important historiographical movement that connects large global processes and ideologies (imperialism, urbanism, capitalism, communism, Catholicism) to community and individual experiences.