Rejected by all? Managing (Un)desired Migration through the Expulsion and Repatriation process. The case of Portuguese in France

Project Information

MigMan

Grant agreement ID: 101106210

DOI

10.3030/101106210

Project closed

EC signature date 25 April 2023

Start date 1 January 2024

End date 31 December 2025

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 195 914,88

Coordinated by

ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE DE LYON
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MigMan (Rejected by all? Managing (Un)desired Migration through the Expulsion and Repatriation process. The case of Portuguese in France)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The MigMan project is a critical and conceptually informed analysis of the mechanisms for regulating, managing, and controlling international migratory movements during the 20th century. It identifies and conceptualizes a model of migratory (non-)desirability, based on the interplay of perspectives, interests, and interventions of origin, transit, and destination states, as well as the role played by a variety of public and private institutions.
The issue of migrant rejection and return—a pressing societal concern—is addressed through a historical, comparative, and transnational case study focusing on the expulsion and repatriation practices affecting Portuguese migrants in four French cities: Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, and Rouen during the interwar period. This historical analysis is based on the unprecedented consultation and cross-referencing of archival sources from France, Spain, and Portugal.
The project combines the use of written historical archives with the creation and construction of a database, allowing an in-depth examination of the procedures of rejection and return of Portuguese migrants during the interwar years. Beyond quantifying the observed phenomena, the exploitation of cross-referenced data from diverse sources has made it possible to explore complex social and administrative dynamics.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work performed and main achievements
The scientific activities have made major contributions to the international scholarly community in the field of the history of Portuguese migration to France during the interwar period, as well as in the analysis of migrant rejection and return processes to the country of origin.

Publications and events
Preparation of a monograph for an international publisher, to be submitted to Palgrave Pivot, on the topic of expulsions and assisted returns of Portuguese migrants during the interwar period.
Submission of the scholarly article Migrant Women and the Administration: The Case of Portuguese Women in France during the Interwar Period to the special issue Women, Migration and Historical Identity Documentation in Europe: Surveillance, Security and Survival for Women’s History Review.
Submission of the scholarly article Irregular Migrants Expelled from 1930s France: The Case of Portuguese Migrants in the Gironde Department to Contemporary History Review. Based on the analysis of individual dossiers collected and examined within the project, this article has been recently submitted and contributes to the dissemination of original empirical results from my research.
Coordination of the seminar Comparative Social History of Migrations for the Master’s program Comparative Social History, focusing on the notions of circulation, transnationalism, transfers, and the connected and entangled history of migrations.
Organization of the research seminar Social Sciences and Migrations for the Master’s track Migrations (ENS Lyon).
Organization of the online research seminar Between Migrations and Rejections: Cross-Perspectives on Undesirability and Assisted Return in the Twentieth Century. This international seminar brought together researchers specializing in migration history and postcolonial history (from France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Slovenia, Argentina, the United Kingdom) to discuss the policies and practices of migrant rejection and assisted return in the 20th century.
Oral presentations
September 2024: with Alícia Gil Lázara, ¿Deseables o indeseables? Los emigrantes portugueses y españoles y el proceso de repatriación durante el periodo de entreguerras desde los países latino-americanos, at the XXᵉ International Congress of the Association of Latin American Historians (AHILA), Naples, on the theme Entre América y el Mediterráneo. Actores, ideas, circulaciones entre los mundos ibéricos.
March 2025: Portuguese migrants in France between the wars and individual strategies to counter undesirability, at the European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), Leiden University.
June 2025: A Transnational and Comparative Approach to the Assisted Return of Portuguese Migrants from France and Brazil, at The Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies (ASPHS), University of Maryland.
February 2025: Qui mérite le retour ? Le «grand rapatriement» des Portugais depuis le Brésil, 1929-1933, in the seminar Indésirabilité, coordinated by Aurélie Audeval and Ivan Olaya.
Conceptual model and database
On a methodological level, the project developed a transferable conceptual model of migratory undesirability and established a database covering more than 4,000 migrants, built from cross-referenced serial sources processed digitally. This approach combines quantitative analysis with detailed biographical reconstruction.
Geovisualization
The use of geovisualization allowed mapping of regional and transnational mobilities, identification of key border crossing points, and a better understanding of the operational and financial arrangements for returns. It thus provides reusable tools for the comparative study of coercive migration policies.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The scientific output has contributed to understanding the rationalities at work in this field: economic rationality and maintenance of order in the case of expulsions; the interweaving of police, health, and eugenics concerns in psychiatric care; and social selection logic under the guise of protection in the context of repatriation. It also sheds light on the multi-level governance of migrant rejection by identifying the hierarchy and interactions among decision-making, administrative, medical, consular, and associative actors, while highlighting the ambivalent role of certain intermediaries and the mediating function of specific actors. Particular attention is given to migrants’ agency and their differentiated strategies of subjectivation. Moreover, the scientific results highlight specific forms of governance applied to migrant women, as well as women’s strategies of contestation and network mobilization in contexts of socio-economic and family vulnerability.
It is now important to ensure the continuity of this research program through a comparative analysis of rejection and return applied to other migratory realities — including other nationalities and movements, particularly transatlantic ones — as well as the exploration of additional rationalities associated with the management and supervision of migrants, such as those related to physical health.
In this regard, the conceptual model and relational database constitute particularly relevant tools for developing further research on return phenomena, specifically regarding supervisory procedures, but also on migratory trajectories and strategies, building on complementary analyses of historical archives located in other countries and carried out by other researchers in the context of individual or collective projects.