Labour Brokers in Asian Migrations in French Colonial Empire of Asia and Pacific, from early 19th to the mid-20th century – COOLIEBROKERS

Research will be carried out into the main migrant workers in French Indochina and Melanesia: Chinese, Japanese, Melanesian, Polynesian, Vietnamese “coolies” (in alphabetical order), and their brokers. The term «coolie«, which is not necessarily used everywhere in these two spaces (the term «canaque« is often preferred in Oceania, bearing the same pejorative burden), was often employed by Western employers from the beginning of the 19th century, and has again been adopted today. It refers, first and foremost, to Asian and Pacific contract workers; then, by extension and in a derogatory way, to people who work with their hands for a small wage.
We propose a historical and comparative study of intermediation in migration, from the beginning of the Nineteenth to mid-Twentieth centuries, carried out within two fieldworks, colonial Indochina and Melanesia, where it has remarkable density. To achieve this, we will examine the historical, socio-cultural and political anchoring or uprooting of intermediation. We will insist that the intermediary is no longer necessarily a hangman, that the coolie, canaque, or the migrant is not inevitably his victim. Both operate in contexts structured around constraints and opportunities, and permanently arrange structural forces and their agency.

forthcoming

forthcoming

forthcoming

This project aims to enrich knowledge related to migration brokerage in the French colonial empire of Asia-Pacific, from the beginning of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century. This term refers to the organization of the labour migrations by intermediaries - native or migrant or foreign - in the context of colonial labour. The first objective of this research is to examine these brokers, the brokerage and the clichés (stereotypes) which surround them during the colonial period, and still today. Our purpose is to capture the coolie brokers as social and political agents of labour relations. The still very incomplete knowledge of labour migrations various forms in the French Empire, from Colonial Indochina to French Polynesia, since the early nineteenth till the middle of the 20th century, is another major reason for choosing these historical fieldworks. We hope this research will help fill some gaps in French and foreign historiography of the topic.
Studies dedicated to brokerage in migration are cruelly lacking in historical depth. This project aims to fill this gap using historical studies carried out within the framework of the French colonial empire in Asia and the Pacific. Research will be carried out into the main Asian and Oceanians migrant workers who migrated, from the early nineteenth to mid-Twentieth centuries: Chinese, Japanese, Melanesian, Polynesian, Vietnamese “coolies” (in alphabetical order), and their brokers. The term "coolie", which is not necessarily used everywhere in this space (the term "canaque" is often preferred in Oceania, bearing the same pejorative burden), was often employed by Western employers from the beginning of the 19th century, and has again been adopted today. It refers, first and foremost, to Asian and Pacific labourers and contract workers; then, by extension and in a derogatory way, to people who work with their hands for a wage.
We propose a historical and comparative study of intermediation in migration, from the beginning of the Nineteenth to mid-Twentieth centuries, carried out within two fieldworks, colonial Indochina and Melanesia, where it has remarkable density. To achieve this, we will examine the historical, socio-cultural and political anchoring or uprooting of intermediation. We will insist that the intermediary is no longer necessarily a hangman, that the coolie, canaque, or the migrant is not inevitably his victim. Both operate in contexts structured around constraints and opportunities, and permanently arrange structural forces and the capacity to act. Through the study of brokers' careers and the history of brokerage institutions, it is important for this project to underline the complex, but understandable and mobilizable nature of these intermediations in the current context of anxiety about explosion of international migration.
Three themes will guide our reflection and collective research. The main aim of theme 1 « Socio-economic dimensions of migratory intermediation » will be to understand the social figures of migratory mediation, both individual and collective, the careers of brokers, the networks of intermediaries. Particular attention will be paid to the institutions that operated in intermediation. Theme 2 « Diplomacy, politics and labour migrations » analyses the place of brokers in migration policy and more generally the regulation state actors sought to impose on the functioning of labour migration. Theme 3 « Representations, literatures and memory of intermediation » focuses on issues of memory and representation of brokers.