African Political Activism in Postcolonial France : State Surveillance and Social Welfare

This book investigates the relationship between West African immigrant political activism, government surveillance, and the social welfare state in post-colonial France. This book weaves together three inter-related areas of historical scholarship: the history of immigration to France, the political lives of immigrant communities, and policymaking to offer a new appraisal of post-colonialism and neocolonialism in the late twentieth-century.

African Political Activism in Postcolonial France engages with several areas of scholarly inquiry, ranging from the study of immigrants to the investigation of surveillance and the legacy of colonialism. Within migration studies, many important analyses have focused on integration, yielding critical contributions to our understanding of immigration and identity. This work moves in a different direction. Factoring in the dynamics of colonialism, decolonization, and their effect on immigrant political activism and state policy in the postcolonial, Cold War era reveals that immigrants from francophone Sub-Saharan Africa were key players who shaped the development of public policy toward immigrants. Through this approach, we can understand how republicanism, colonial ideology, immigration policy, and immigrant political activism intersected in the post-colonial era, shaping the reception of African workers and affecting their lives and experiences in France.