Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration

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Partial view of the exhibition rooms

The Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration (CNHI) is a museum of immigration to France , which was inaugurated on October 10, 2007 after twenty years of preparation in Paris .

History of the project

For a long time, attention had been drawn to the fact that, unlike the United States , there was no institution of this type in France . The Toul transit center, for example, unlike the facilities on Ellis Island , New York , had been demolished. In 1990 a group of historians, including Gérard Noiriel and Pierre Milza , set up an association to promote the museum project: Association pour un musée de l'immigration . A report was given to the government which did not pursue the matter.

In 1998 the journalist Philippe Bernard and Patrick Weil , director of research at the Center national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), tried to revive the project by addressing the then Prime Minister Lionel Jospin . Rémy Schwartz , member of the Conseil d'État , and Driss El Yazami , Vice-President of the French League for Human Rights , were tasked with preparing another report. He came to the conclusion that there was a great need for such a museum and recommended action. This time, too, the project was not pursued any further.

Only after the re-election of French President Jacques Chirac in 2002 did he instruct the former Minister of Culture, Jacques Toubon , to investigate the matter again. Toubon presented a third report in 2004 that adopted many of the recommendations made in previous reports. The then Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin initiated the establishment of a preparatory group, which led to the creation of the Groupement d'intérêt privé (GIP) of the Cité de l'immigration .

On May 18, 2007, eight academics who belonged to the bodies that prepared the Cité de l'immigration stood in protest against the establishment of a Ministère de l'immigration, de l'intégration, de l'identité nationale, initiated by President Nicolas Sarkozy et du codéveloppement (Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Co-development), because in their view this foundation means “the trace of a discourse stigmatizing immigration and the tradition of a nationalism based on distrust and hostility towards strangers in times of crisis”.

The museum

The seat of the museum is the Palais de la Porte Dorée designed by Albert Laprade . Patrick Bouchain was commissioned to carry out the renovations required for the museum .

The conception of the museum was entrusted to Hélène Lafont-Couturier , who previously ran the Musée d'Aquitaine in Bordeaux . 20 million euros were invested in the project.

Permanent exhibition

The permanent exhibition covers 1,100 m². She has been dedicated to immigration to France since the early 19th century. The permanent exhibition leads through nine focal points:

  1. emigration
  2. Legal framework for immigration to France
  3. France as a host country and in opposition to immigration
  4. Country of origin and host country
  5. Housing of the immigrants
  6. Immigrants in the world of work
  7. Immigrants' roots in France
  8. Immigrants and sports
  9. Contributions of immigrants to French culture

Temporary exhibitions

The following temporary exhibitions have been held since 2007, each accompanied by lectures and films:

  • Reconstruct the nation. Les réfugiés arméniens au Proche-Orient et en France. 1917-1945 (October 2007 to January 2008): Immigration from Armenia
  • 1931, les étrangers au temps de l'Exposition coloniale (May to September 2008): Immigrants 1931
  • À chacun ses étrangers (December 2008 to April 2009)
  • Générations, un siècle d'histoire culturelle des Maghrébins en France (November 2009 to April 2010): The exhibition focused on a century of immigration from the Maghreb.
  • Allez la France! Football et immigration, histoires croisées (May 2010 to January 2011): an exhibition on football and immigration
  • Roman Cieslewicz. Zoom (February 2011 to May 2011)
  • Polonia. Les Polonais en France (March 2011 to August 2011): Poland in France
  • J'ai deux amours (November 2011 to June 2012)
  • Migrants en Guyane. Photographies de Frédéric Piantoni (February to May 2012): Exhibition on immigration to French Guiana
  • Frontières. Une exposition sur les limites et leurs limites (November 10, 2015 to May 29, 2016). Catalog.

Gallery des don

The museum also has a gallery des dons (gallery of personal memories). Objects that individual immigrants have given to the museum are shown here and stories and memories related to them are told. The museum encourages its visitors to continue to contribute with objects and memories.

Educational and research institutions

The museum has continued an auditorium and multimedia - library Abdelmalek Sayad . 450 m² are available for pedagogy . An online exhibition (including a film) has been set up.

Circumstances of opening

When the new museum opened to the public on October 10, 2007, the then French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had recently opened the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine on September 17 , and the Minister for Immigration and National Identity Brice Hortefeux not present. It was not until December 15, 2014 that the Immigration Museum was officially opened by the French President François Hollande .

reception

The new museum received a rather mixed reception. Joseph Hanimann wrote in the FAZ : “ The historical demolition boards, maps and statistics on migration flows, the photos, film excerpts and personal souvenirs of migrants that are shown are vivid, objectively presented and avoid any sweetish echoes of fraternal mixing of cultures. The conflict points of living together are not idealistically, but civically smoothed out: Homesickness is a private matter, the mother tongue is only good for at home, xenophobia of neighbors is a temporary symptom of social crisis . "

See also

literature

  • Musée de L'Histoire de L'Immigration: Repères - Permanent Exhibition . [Guide booklet], undated [before 2015].

Web links

Commons : Musée de l'histoire de l'immigration  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ German : National Center for Scientific Research.
  2. ↑ Patrick Weil, Gérard Noiriel , Nancy Green, Patrick Simon , Vincent Viet, Marie-Christine Volovitch-Tavarès, Marie-Claude Blanc-Chaléard, Geneviève Dreyfus-Armand .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gérard Noiriel: Le creuset français . Editions du Seuil, 1988.
  2. ^ Identité nationale: 8 universitaires démissionnent  ; Le Nouvel Observateur  ; May 18, 2007 ( article online ( memento of the original dated November 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / tempsreel.nouvelobs.com
  3. ↑ Ministère de l'immigration: première crise, premières démissions  ; Liberation  ; May 18, 2007 ( Article online ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.liberation.fr
  4. ↑ Musée: Repères , p. [2].
  5. ↑ Unlimited amazement at borders in FAZ from December 29, 2015, page 11
  6. ↑ Musée: Repères , p. [6].
  7. ↑ Musée: Repères , pp. [2, 7].
  8. ↑ film .
  9. ^ Dépêche AFP of October 10, 2007
  10. ↑ Joseph Hanimann, “Unwanted. unloved. The Cité de l'immigration in Paris opens its museum ”in: FAZ, October 12, 2007, p. 43

Coordinates: 48 ° 50 ′ 7 "  N , 2 ° 24 ′ 34"  E