SUMMARY

Belgian immigration to France is the oldest (early 19th century) and the largest: millions of French people have Flemish and Walloon ancestry. Yet the memory seems to have faded. If it weren't for the Flemish-sounding names in telephone directories and on war memorials in towns in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais regions, who would remember that the first immigration was Belgian?

Going in search of his ancestors from the Tournai and Ghent regions, Jean-Pierre Popelier has retraced the history of the thousands of men and families who came to find work on the farms, in the mines and in the factories of the Nord, Pas-de-Calais and sometimes in more distant regions of France. Not always welcomed by the local population, and exploited to a greater extent than French workers by employers eager to find a docile and efficient workforce, they blended in with people whose history they had shared, depending on the vagaries of war, and who were their brothers in misery and hope.

This exceptional work draws on personal accounts and archive documents to tell the story of the daily lives of these first economic migrants. It's a story that should touch every one of us.

AUTHOR

Jean-Pierre Popelier was born in Roubaix into a family of Belgian origin. For almost twenty-five years, he has devoted himself mainly to the shared history of Belgium and France - and more particularly the Hauts-de-France region. To this end, he studied history and completed a Master 2 at EHESS on the subject.