Citizenship on the move: refugee communities and the state in France, 1914–18

Abstract

This chapter provides complementary perspectives on the experiences of French refugees. The first is the perspective of the state and host communities in the French interior. The chapter examines the organisation of official and charitable aid and also examines the role of refugees in supporting the cultural mobilisation of the French nation for war. Originally they were welcomed as the tangible manifestations of ‘German barbarism’, but later on many faced hostility and were seen as a burden. The chapter also argues that in spite of the difficulties and disruptions posed by displacement, refugees successfully maintained communal bonds of solidarity based on the home communities they had left. French refugees were more than the passive recipients of state and charitable aid but actively engaged in managing their circumstances. Finally the chapter considers the return and resettlement of refugees after the war, the moral obligation many felt to return home and rebuild, and role played by memories and commemorations of displacement in post-war French society.