Remembering the BUMIDOM

In 1963, the French Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe were experiencing economic decline and people were demanding independence from France.

Mainland France, meanwhile, was in desperate need of a workforce to rebuild the country after World War Two.

To solve both problems, the French government set up a labour migration agency, the Bureau for the Development of Migration in the Overseas Departments (or BUMIDOM).

The BUMIDOM was created to move young, politically active people from the overseas departments – former French colonies that had been converted to be part of the nation of France –  to mainland France.

It selected candidates, funded their trip, and found them housing and work once they arrived in France.

In just under 20 years, 160,000 Martinicans and Guadeloupeans migrated to France through this scheme.

For some, migration was a positive experience because it allowed them to enjoy personal and professional success, which they would not have had if they had stayed on the islands.

For many, however, it was exploitative and coercive. They were subjected to racial discrimination and the jobs they were given in areas like healthcare and domestic service were low-skilled and underpaid.

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This history has parallels with the migration of what has become known as the ‘Windrush Generation’ from Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbados to Britain. The ‘Empire Windrush’ ship arrived in 1948, a few years before the BUMIDOM was set up.

Caribbean people came to Britain to fill post-war labour shortages. They became manual labourers, nurses, and cleaners in the newly established National Health Service.

Many were subjected to racism.

Discrimination against the Caribbean community continues today in the UK. The ‘Windrush Scandal’ of 2018 saw thousands of people who were legally entitled to live in the country having to prove their rights to live there, or risk being detained or threatened with deportation.

Unlike the ‘Windrush Generation’, which has attracted much press over the last decade, little is known about the BUMIDOM outside of Guadeloupe and Martinique. It is not taught in French schools, it does not feature in history textbooks, and there is little mention of it in national museums.

In my new book, BUMIDOM (1963-1982) and its Afterlives, I argue that the French government has chosen not to commemorate the BUMIDOM to avoid admitting that migration was organised on the grounds of race.

This would contradict the ideology of universalism on which the French Republic is founded, in which all French citizens are equal, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or gender.

By being subjected to state-sponsored discrimination, Guadeloupeans and Martinicans – who were, and still are French citizens – were denied their full rights. Their racial origins prevented them from being fully accepted as French citizens.

Remembering the BUMIDOM today

But this doesn’t mean the BUMIDOM is forgotten.

For groups whose past is not represented in museums, memorials, or history textbooks, it is through creative works that they are able to remember their traumatic past.

Novels, autobiographies, songs and films can become strategies of recovery for communities who have been denied their national identity and citizenship.

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In my book I analyse works that were produced at the time in which the BUMIDOM was in operation, like François Ega’s first-hand account, Lettres à une noire (1978), alongside more contemporary works including Charlise Curier’s autobiographical Mon aventure avec le BUMIDOM (2019).

I also examine items produced in different genres to give a diverse depiction of migration through the BUMIDOM.

What I found was that most texts, films and songs are critical of the BUMIDOM. They emphasise the mismatch between the expectations of BUMIDOM participants and the reality of life in mainland France.

Some of the cultural works are designed to fill the gap in the formal education of children about this movement.

For example, the graphic novel Peyi an nou (2017) by Jessica Oublié and Marie-Ange Rousseau teaches young people what it was like to migrate through the BUMIDOM, and what it means to carry out research on a traumatic topic.

Still a long way to go

2023 marked the sixtieth anniversary of the creation of the BUMIDOM. There have been many local events to commemorate the BUMIDOM on both sides of the Atlantic.

For example, in March 2023, the Caribbean association Sonjé held a two-day event in the Parisian suburb of St-Denis. From March to June 2025, an exhibition about the history of the BUMIDOM is being held at the Departmental Archives in Guadeloupe.

Yet these initiatives are not national, state-sponsored events and so there is still a long way to go before memories of the BUMIDOM are fully respected by the French state.

BUMIDOM (1963-1982) and its Afterlives by Antonia Wimbush and published by Edinburgh University Press, is available now.