Aid,Activism and the State in Post-War France: AMANA,a Charity Organisation for Colonial Migrants,1945–1962

Abstract

Aid, Activism and the State in Post-War France: AMANA, a Charity Organisation for Colonial Migrants, 1945–1962

The article uses the case of AMANA, a charity organisation for colonial migrants, to analyse the humanitarian and political underpinnings of social assistance in postwar France. AMANA was created in 1945 to provide education to North Africans and its origins were linked to French colonial history: the growing migrant population was a product of the empire and AMANA's director, Jacques Ghys, had previously been a missionary with the order of the White Fathers. The article discusses the early years of AMANA, based on its recently deposited papers. It shows how the organisation drew upon colonial experiences in the creation of programmes aimed at immigrant adaptation. Organisations such as AMANA helped to shape views on the immigrants’ ability to adapt to French culture. In doing so, such bodies contributed to the definition of assimilation from a colonial project to a republican imperative.