The French village of 3,000 refugees
Audio 48:30
"Boat people" leaving Vietnam in 1982. © Flickr / CC by 2.0 / Manhhai
By: Valérie Nivelon
51 mins
"A small village in Isère, similar to many others in France, but which makes an exemplary effort to help the refugees from Indochina as best it can".
These are the words of the writer and journalist from Grenoble Paul Dreyfus to describe Cognin-les-Gorges in the Dauphiné Libéré edition of March 23, 1982. Located at the foot of the Vercors, this village now has 650 souls, and is located 45 kilometers from Grenoble.
Between 1977 and 1992, its inhabitants welcomed 2,700 survivors from Southeast Asia.
They are Laotians, Vietnamese, Cambodians and flee the dictatorship of their countries through “boat people”.
Publicity
French hospitality in favor of refugees had taken shape a few years earlier in 1973, in a National Reception System, a framework within which the Provisional Accommodation Centers (CPH) were created. The Rhône-Alpes region was, at the time, at the top of the national ranking of the number of refugees by CPH with an average of 485 approved places between 1977 and 1985. In Isère, the arrival of refugees from South-East Asia is attested to. from May 1975, and in 1983 the region will have 13 temporary accommodation centers.
In Cognin-les-Gorges, the opening of a CPH in a former boarding school will be an opportunity for the local population, the elected representatives of the village, the staff of the establishment and people in migration situation to live an experience unprecedented social, moreover in rural areas;
45 years after the first arrivals, these sharing are still very lively and the testimonies very moving.
Talking about this solidarity today makes it possible to question the meaning of hospitality, integration, and the very status of the exile, in a context of hardening migration policies.
The village of 3,000 refugees is a long format report proposed by Clémentine Méténier.
For further :
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The book "On the road to exile"
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The exhibition "On the road to exile"
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The Museum of Resistance and Deportation of Isère
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