Books & ideas

Through the Dusty Window of a Furnished Room

Jean-François Laé — 2025-11-18T08:30:00Z

Condensing the history of migration into the space of five buildings in the industrial suburb of Saint-Denis, Fabrice Langrognet gives voice to unexpected archives. These tell us much about the coexistence of multiple and diverse foreigners united by precarity and uncertainty.

Summers in the Motherland

Yasmine Siblot — 2023-07-04T09:00:00Z

From the 1980s onwards, the practice of vacationing in the Maghreb homeland became widespread, and gradually replaced any hopes of resettlement. These summer vacations allowed people to return to their roots in a family setting and temporarily escape the subjugation and social labels they endured in France.

Survivors: Women and Migration

Laura Odasso — 2023-04-05T10:55:32Z

C. Schmoll invites us to feminize our view of migration towards Europe. Public migration policies select women according to frequently incompatible principles of morality, vulnerability and utility, and determine the positions that they will come to occupy in our societies.

Sorting at the Borders

Annalisa Lendaro — 2023-03-07T07:02:00Z

By retracing the history of Ofpra (the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons), Karen Akoka shows that the reception of migrants in France is based on a tacit distinction between “good” political refugees and “bad” economic migrants.

The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum

Chowra Makaremi — 2021-02-15T08:00:00Z

As the European border control agency is being criticized for its violent methods, the European Commission is working on a reform of the European Union migration policy. In this interview, the legal scholar Elspeth Guild explores the relation between decision making and the reality of migrations.

Fortunetellers and Teahouse Workers

Di Wang — 2020-04-09T07:00:00Z

Is there a better way than drinking tea and chatting in a local teahouse to get a sense of everyday life in Sichuan's capital city? A historian of Chengdu and tea culture explains the role of teahouses in public life and the business opportunities they offer to migrant workers.

Democracy With or Without Borders

Camille Pascal — 2020-01-02T08:00:00Z

Can a state exclude people in the name of the common good? What gives legitimacy to definitions of borders and belonging? In this work of political theory, B. Boudou argues for a pragmatic, democratic and shifting approach to borders: only shared interests can define a community.

Foreign and Familiar

Camille de Vulpillières — 2019-08-26T07:00:00Z

The “migrant crisis” has prompted a welcoming response on the part of many citizens. While their initiatives alone cannot address the challenges posed by migration, the anthropologist Michel Agier draws upon these examples to define the principles of a hospitality policy worthy of its name.

How Oracles Are Forged

François Héran — 2018-11-05T07:00:00Z

Alarmist predictions about African migration are all the rage. François Héran shows that they are based less on a demographic approach than on an economic conjecture, and on the fallacy that development in Africa can only be achieved at the expense of Europe.

Scotland: Nation, Enlightenment and Empire

Clarisse Godard Desmarest — 2018-09-13T07:00:00Z

A new exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh explores the changes undergone in Scotland in the fields of science, technology and literature over a century (1760-1860). It also offers a nuanced narrative of Scotland's role in the British Empire.