French migrants to the United States after World War II: an exception?

di Laurent Jeanpierre
in Memoria e Ricerca n.s. 31 (2009), p. 27

The French case is always mentioned as an exception, in the existing literature on cultural migration. This consolidated judgment is based on the fact that the exile of French intellectuals was marked by a very high number of repatriations after 1945. Starting from a review of the general traits of this experience, the author aims at overcoming this common place, starting from a different methodological assumption: he considers the figure of the refugee as an entity having a weak national identity, always subject to modification. The essay concentrates on political activities carried out by French refugees in the United States and on the cultural and scientific contribution they offered to the nation.