The Americans in France (18th-21st century)
Until now, migration historians have tended to study the movements of poor populations towards wealthy countries. For that reason, the presence in France of a population that does not correspond to the usual patterns, originating from the United States of America, the wealthy country par excellence, sparked our curiosity…
Scarcely had they been delivered from British rule than Americans from the East coast (Boston, New York, Philadelphia) looked to France. Eight to ten thousand of them were already there, under the Revolution and during the First Empire, 65% of whom claimed to be merchants, ship’s captains and property owners. With the progress in navigation, coming to France became almost easy. Until 1881, French censuses counted all Americans together, whether they came from the North, the Centre or the South. By the late 19th century, the Northerners were counted apart: 6,915 in 1886, 7,024 in 1891, 6,899 in 1896.
The pioneers
From 1901 on, citizens of the United States finally appeared separately in censuses. Having acquired colossal fortunes thanks to their country’s incredible economic boom, Americans were attracted to the quality of life, luxury, fashion, arts, French society’s reputation for brilliance, the advantages offered by the capital and the country’s climate. They behaved like ultra-wealthy, frivolous consumers. Their presence led to major development of the tertiary sector: services and trade (banking, insurance, hotels and restaurants, casinos, sports in general [particularly horse racing], real estate, domestic service, department stores, tourism, leisure activities, culture: shows, literary life and art market).
A few industrial sectors were also affected: luxury, automobile, shipbuilding (including pleasure boats), textile and fashion (hairdressing, couture, perfumes). Through their excessive consumption, this population contributed greatly to the financing and development of several traditional sectors of the French economy.
Fighting with the French
World War 1 did not force the Americans to leave, and they participated in France’s defence, then its victory along with the rebuilding of the country.
Pershing’s army, then the American Field Service, Anne Morgan’s American Committee for Devasted France (CARD), the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation and a number of non-profits (together constituting a sort of Marshall Plan before its time on the part of American philanthropy) attracted American citizens to France. They left indelible traces of their visit, in other words modern methods of developing and operating companies, along with deep-rooted, efficient and lasting Franco-American friendship networks, not to mention their on-site consumption or their investments.
Scarcely had the Great War ended than a wave of Black Americans (200,000 fought in France during the hostilities) made their way to France (less racist than the USA), passing on to the French a lasting taste for, and practice of, jazz.
An elite migration
Meanwhile, the constant increase in the number of American industrial and commercial establishments in France required the presence of thousands of Americans. The free-market French economy had no means of control, restriction or discrimination with regard to them. By around 1925, five or six thousand American “households” were living in the wake of US trade and industry.
In addition to bankers, insurance specialists, consultants, financial consultants, shop owners, salesmen, dealers, trade representatives, the Paris region counted lawyers, doctors or surgeons, dentists, clergymen, engineers, teachers, bookstore owners, journalists, diplomats. Wealthy individuals and retired people settled on the Côte d’Azur. This whole population formed the nucleus of the American colony in France, protected by the American Chamber of Commerce in France, founded in 1894. It consisted in white people, protestants, promoters of free trade, working, educated, qualified, affluent or even rich or ultra-rich.
This presence was supported and justified, for the most part, by US economic growth, which was driving the Americans to conquer external markets; France was the first of these markets and Americans came to the country to work (hard) and to physically take ownership of land, on the principle of not allowing others to manage their business.
They placed modern industrial equipment within reach of the French (tractors, automobiles, radios, sewing machines, typewriters, food processing, media, cinema, etc.). The power of the dollar guaranteed considerable purchasing power against a weakened franc. A multitude of associations and clubs, managed and financed by the Americans of France, enabled on the one hand a flow of information about France, and on the other, the ability to maintain links with the motherland.
"Paris is a party"
During the inter-war period, many American artists also came to France after being unable to find their place in the USA: musicians, writers, painters, sculptors, architects, decorators, art enthusiasts and collectors: they formed a part of the lost generation. Attracted to the creativity of Paris (a city renowned as being the centre of western civilisation and also the place where the artistic avant-garde was finding an expression), these personalities, more inclined towards acculturation than members of the business world, created bonds of mutual recognition with French avant-garde movements and intellectuals.
During this period, certain individuals were solidly established in France while still keeping their American nationality. This population in fact had a strong tendency to return (around half every year), but they were constantly renewed by a flow of new arrivals. Certain Americans did request citizenship however: between 1,400 and 1,800 naturalised per year, mainly women, who thus lost their US citizenship and had to immerse themselves completely in the French social fabric (the history of American women in France merits a study in its own right).
La figure du GI
The shock of the depression and World War 2 caused American civilians to be called back to the USA. They were replaced by the GIs. These soldiers themselves went on to be replaced by people working on the Marshall Plan and by NATO troops (which explains the post-war peak in French census figures). Towns like Fontainebleau, Châteauroux, Verdun, Orléans, Toul, would live for some fifteen years to the beat of the American way of life.
After the departure of the NATO troops, the US presence in France stabilised at around 25,000 people per year (it is generally considered that the official figures are under-evaluated), 50% of whom were permanent residents, living in France for more than fifteen years but not automatically naturalised.
The time of globalisation
The resemblance to the population of the inter-war period is flagrant: American migrants come to work. They stem from the large metropolises of the East coast: businessmen (21%), people from the professions and the self-employed (18%), researchers (9%), teachers (7%), artists (7%), international civil servants (6%) and 23% individuals with no profession including 77% women; the rest is split between students (this trend has existed since the 19th century), clergymen and retired/high-net-worth individuals. Only one tenth of this whole population is black. The distribution by gender is 56% men and 44% women.
There are an increasingly large number of US firms in France: in the 1970s, the US economy in France employed over 350,000 French people. What united the Americans was the fact of belonging to an internationally powerful country and the pride they took in their citizenship, which they proclaimed loud and clear. It was also their confidence in their currency (even during periods of devaluation) and their belief in their country’s dynamism. They have always been aware of American superiority and of their country’s performance worldwide, even if September 11th brought something of a change.
They are not prevented from acting by the need to forget where they came from. They will never experience the shame at being who they are that the same communities welcoming them impose upon immigrants coming from poor countries.
The Americans of France form an “over-developed” foreign minority with the weapons to make themselves respected (including those among their members who do not belong to the elite). This is how they should be studied, given that this status does not necessarily mean easy acculturation: indeed the social, economic and cultural changes that have resulted from the American presence in France are not always consensual in the host country. But is integration still a goal to be achieved, at a time when whole sections of the populations of the world’s largest cities are resembling each other more and more, while breaking with the masses in their own hinterlands?
Report by Nicole Fouché, CNRS / CENA-EHESS