Paris, City of Immigrants

Catalog description

Paris is often thought of as the quintessentially French city, the epicenter of government and culture in the highly centralized nation that is France. As a common French saying has it, "Paris, c'est la France" - "Paris is France." Yet for generations the face of Paris has been shaped not just by the French of the Hexagon, but by diverse groups of immigrants, ranging from East European emigres to inhabitants of France's former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia. Indeed, immigration has made Paris so cosmopolitan that we might ask to what degree it truly embodies "Frenchness" today. Through course readings, lectures, and visits to key Parisian sites such as the Museum of the History of Immigration and immigrant neighborhoods such as Belleville and la Goutte d'Or, we will examine the most important waves of immigration to Paris and how they have helped to make the city what it is today.