Date: Tuesday, 28 May 2026
Time: 15:00–17:00
Place: Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Ciutadella Campus, Room Calsamiglia & Online

Speaker: Eric Savarese (Université de Montpellier – CEPEL)
Chair: Demetra Santagati (GRITIM-UPF)

Link to the session (online): https://upf-edu.zoom.us/launch/jc/96019183436

Synopsis
Migration policies in France are part of a long historical trajectory. While the right to asylum emerged during the French Revolution, France became a major country of immigration from the late nineteenth century onwards. The lecture will examine how French migration policies have evolved over time, the public policy instruments through which they have been implemented, and the ways in which France has experimented with different migration governance models over the past 150 years.

Particular attention will be devoted to colonial Algeria and the migration dynamics associated with settler colonialism. Beginning with the colonisation of Algeria in 1830, migration policies were developed to support territorial occupation and colonial governance, leading to the settlement not only of French citizens, but also of Spanish, Italian, and Maltese populations. The lecture will explore how demography became a central instrument of colonial governance and how these colonial legacies continue to shape contemporary debates on citizenship, migration, and memory politics.

Bio
Eric Savarese is Professor of Political Science at the University of Montpellier. His research focuses on citizenship in colonial and postcolonial contexts, particularly in relation to Algeria. His work examines the political and social legacies of Algerian independence, including the emergence of groups such as pieds-noirs, harkis, repatriates, and former soldiers, and their influence on migration policies and memory politics.

His current research explores the governance of colonial Algeria through demography, with a particular focus on the production of ethnic statistics in the former settler colony.

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