This study uses the case of early emigration to France in order to analyse that country's assimilation policies and the efforts of the Spanish state to preserve the national identity of expatriates. Firstly, the professional, social and cultural characteristics of the emigrants are examined, along with the network of associations that was formed in the first decades of the twentieth century. Then the administrative measures adopted by the respective regimes are analysed, in their silent battle to control the emigrant population and attract the goodwill of emigrants, together with the latter's responses arising from their own self-interests. Special attention is dedicated to legal naturalization and cultural integration through the path of education. The final subject to be addressed is the progressive substitution in France of a strategy based on assimilation by one based on exclusion, as the economic and social crisis of the 1930s deepened.

Relations between Spain and France Emigration Assimilation Collective identities Migration policies national identity

[No Keywords available]