Until March 22 at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société (University Library) on the Campus st Jean d’Angely, the faculty and the RESF (Réseau Éducation Sans Frontières) have come together to organize an exhibition about immigration in the last century in the Alpes-Maritimes.
In a modest room located at the back of the university library, old archives are displayed in a very specific chronological order. Starting from the back of the room, it is possible to go back an entire century in just a few minutes and learn a bit more about 20th-century immigration. It’s an opportunity not only to gather information but also to educate and set the record straight on a topic often demonized and misunderstood in the region.
From Italian emigrants at the start of the last century to Spaniards fleeing dictatorship, the exhibition accurately relates, with archives to support, the conditions of their exile and their living conditions once in our country. “We are mainly here to educate,” explains a member of the RESF association “There are many falsehoods surrounding immigration in this century, it’s time to set the record straight on the origin of the region’s economic boom.”
Indeed, we often forget the appalling living conditions in which these immigrants lived. Often exploited, they were nonetheless the primary actors in the economic development of the Alpes-Maritimes. Cheaper than other workers, these undocumented immigrants were a boon to big businesses and employers. For some, many years passed before they obtained political asylum. Others never obtained it.
The exhibition will welcome many school classes and others, and will organize many debates. This was the case yesterday at its opening. Another conference will take place at the closing on March 22.
