Ministry of Health and Population, Office of Immigration and the Introduction of Families: applications for the introduction into France of families of immigrant foreign workers (1946-1958)

This fonds of 133 items contains files relating to circular no. 180 of 26 August 1948 (amended by circular no. 116 of 14 June 1950). This concerned the procedure for bringing in families of foreign workers, whether employed or self-employed, of any nationality. With a view to speeding up the arrival of families, this ministerial circular called on prefects to authorise the entry into France in a large number of cases of the families of immigrant workers (employed or self-employed) already established on French territory.The 5 copies of the introduction applications were submitted to the Departmental Population Directorate in the applicant’s place of residence, by the applicant, after having been stamped by his or her employer or the mayor. The applicant was then given all the information needed to direct his family to the centres of the Office national de l’Immigration (offices located in certain foreign countries) responsible for sending them to France once authorisation had been granted, and was also paid the lump sums due when the family entered France. The Departmental Population Directorate carried out investigations into, among other things, the healthiness of the accommodation to be used by the families.The opinion of the departmental director was then forwarded to the prefect.However, prefects could ask the central administration to examine particular cases.For applicants who were not salaried employees, the application had to be referred to the Minister.As applications were processed differently depending on the nationality of the applicant (agreements between countries were established in the post-war years), State aid was provided for certain nationalities, while other families were required to pay a lump sum to the ONI in order to enter France. In the case of the latter, the application was forwarded directly to the ONI in Paris, which instructed the families to appear when summoned by the relevant ONI centre abroad. Some of the files in this section are applications for regularisation (covered by circular 183 of 28 July 1949), for immigrants who had entered France on a short-stay visa and then applied to have their situation regularised if they were staying with their family. Circular n°116 of 14 June 1950 amended n°180 with the following measures: restrictions were imposed if the applicant held a work permit that expired within 3 months.Depending on the applicant’s situation and that of the labour market, job vacancies were filled preferably by nationals. The collection includes several thousand individual files containing forms, correspondence, proof of accommodation, medical certificates, surveys and employment certificates.It shows distinct administrative paths depending on the applicant’s country of origin. The nationalities represented include Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Belgian, Romanian, Bulgarian, British, Polish, Russian, Yugoslav, Turkish, Armenian, Greek, Hungarian, Syrian, Israeli and French. There are also cases of Algerian workers, listed as « free workers », as Algeria was French at the time. As for the various cases of German workers, most were former prisoners of war who had become free workers.Some of the files are very complete, but many are succinct. Some do not indicate the date of birth of the applicant and some, with the same names, can be distinguished by their date of birth or the place where they lived or worked.Handwritten letters bear witness to the lives of immigrants in post-war Europe; some are in the applicant’s original language.To date, some of the files are in poor condition, but the majority are still in good condition.The files are filed alphabetically by applicant’s name. The files are not gender-disaggregated, but some concern migrant women.