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

Funding 2020-2023

Scientific goals

This collaborative program brings together eight academic partners in France, Asia and the Pacific who combine their research skills in an attempt to enrich knowledge relating to migration brokerage within the French colonial empire in Asia and the Pacific, mid-9th to mid-20th century This term refers to the organization of the labour migrations by brokers - 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 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.

Project led by Isabelle Merle in partnership with Paris 7,IRASIA,INALCO andEFE