Overview

Beginning in the 1870s, a great many Bretons-men and women from Brittany, a region in western France-began arriving in Paris. Every age has its pariahs, and in 1900, the ""pariahs of Paris"" were the Bretons, the last distinct group of provincials to come en masse to the capital city. The pariah designation took hold in Paris, in Brittany, and among historians. Yet the derision of recent migrants can be temporary. Tracing the changing status of Bretons in Paris since 1870, Leslie Page Moch demonstrates that state policy, economic trends, and the attitudes of established Parisians and Breton newcomers evolved as the fortunes of Bretons in the capital improved. The pariah stereotype became outdated. Drawing on demographic records and the writings of physicians, journalists, novelists, lawyers, and social scientists, Moch connects internal migration with national integration. She interprets marriage records, official reports on employment, legal and medical theses, memoirs, and writings from secular and religious organizations in the Breton community. As the pariahs of yesterday, Bretons are an example of successful integration into Parisian life. At the same time, their experiences show integration to be a complicated and lengthy process.

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9780822351832

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Leslie Page Moch has given us a more vivid and fully analyzed picture of Breton migration to Paris during the Third French Republic than we have had before. She moves deftly across the fields of demographic, urban, and cultural history to show how young women and men from rural villages in western France became Parisians in their own way, despite the stubborn persistence of prejudice against them. The Pariahs of Yesterday demonstrates that the history of France's internal migration from the provinces has much to teach us about the dynamics of the country's more recent controversies over immigration and cultural diversity. --Herrick Chapman, co-editor of Race in France: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Politics of Difference

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