Reproductive Citizens : Gender, Immigration, and the State in Modern France, 1880 1945

Nimisha Barton

ISBN 10: 1501770209 / ISBN 13: 9781501770203

Published by Cornell University Press Jul 2023, 2023

About this Item

Neuware - 'Through an examination of inclusive social legislation, an expansive welfare apparatus, familialist employer policies, and populationist state practices, this book illustrates how reproductive citizenship - that is, gendered, sex-based social rights - served as the foundation for the integration of women, immigrants, and colonial subjects in France before 1945'--.

Seller Inventory # 9781501770203

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Reproductive Citizens : Gender, Immigration, and the State in Modern France, 1880 1945
• Publisher: Cornell University Press Jul 2023
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1501770209
• ISBN 13: 9781501770203
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 229W x 152H x 21D millimeters 229 millimeters width by 152 millimeters height by 21 millimeters depth
• Weight: 454 grams

About this title

Synopsis

In the familiar tale of mass migration to France from 1880 onward, we know very little about the hundreds of thousands of women who formed a critical part of those migration waves. In Reproductive Citizens, Nimisha Barton argues that their relative absence in the historical record hints at a larger and more problematic oversight―the role of sex and gender in shaping the experiences of migrants to France before the Second World War.

Barton's compelling history of social citizenship demonstrates how, through the routine application of social policies, state and social actors worked separately toward a shared goal: repopulating France with immigrant families. Filled with voices gleaned from census reports, municipal statistics, naturalization dossiers, court cases, police files, and social worker registers, Reproductive Citizens shows how France welcomed foreign-born men and women―mobilizing naturalization, family law, social policy, and welfare assistance to ensure they would procreate, bearing French-assimilated children. Immigrants often embraced these policies because they, too, stood to gain from pensions, family allowances, unemployment benefits, and French nationality. By striking this bargain, they were also guaranteed safety and stability on a tumultuous continent.

Barton concludes that, in return for generous social provisions and refuge in dark times, immigrants joined the French nation through marriage and reproduction, breadwinning and child-rearing―in short, through families and family-making―which made them more French than even formal citizenship status could.

About the Author

Nimisha Barton serves as Director of Equity and Inclusion at an independent school in Los Angeles and as a diversity and inclusion consultant for institutions of higher education. She has published her research in French Politics, Culture and Society and the Journal of Women's History. She has also received awards and fellowships from the Georges Lurcy Charitable and Educational Trust, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Society for French Historical Studies, and the Western Society for French History. Follow her on X @NimishaBarton.