With Joohee Bourgain (teacher and activist)
and Philippe Vitale (sociologist, AMU professor and researcher at LEST-CNRS)
Moderator: Thomas Legrand
With the participation of Caroline Chenu, in charge of research and collections at Mucem.
In Canada, “residential schools” were designed to bring aboriginal children together and assimilate them into Canadian society. It is estimated that 150,000 Inuit or Métis attended these schools between the end of the 19th century and the end of the 20th.
In France, 2,000 children from Reunion Island were taken from their parents between 1962 and 1984 and forcibly sent to France to populate the Creuse region! Proof that the transfer of populations, and children in particular, continued long after the decolonizations…
This session will take a broader look at childhood in exile and transracial adoptions: how do you find your identity?
The podcast episode
Joohee Bourgain (teacher, activist)
Joohee Bourgain, a secondary school teacher, is also an anti-racist and feminist activist. Convinced of the need to make a critical discourse on international adoption visible and to reconsider adoption from the adoptees’ point of view, she published L’adoption internationale, mythes et réalités (Editions Anacaona, May 2021) with the desire to free the word and bring this subject into the public debate.
Philippe Vitale (sociologist, AMU professor and LEST-CNRS researcher)
Philippe Vitale © Philippe Vitale
Philippe Vitale is a sociologist, university professor at Aix-Marseille University and researcher at the Laboratoire d’Economie et de Sociologie du Travail (LEST-CNRS). Specializing in education, culture and knowledge, he has worked on mobility in the French overseas territories. In 2016, he was appointed chairman of a national commission of experts dedicated to the transplantation of the said Réunionnais de la Creuse (1962-1984). A report was submitted to the government and published by La Documentation française (available online). He is the author of numerous articles and several books, including Les enfants de la Creuse: Idées reçues sur la transplantation de mineurs de La Réunion en France (2021), Enseigner l’histoire des enfants de La Creuse (2021), Mobilités ultramarines (2015).
Thomas Legrand (journalist, political columnist)
Thomas Legrand is a journalist and political columnist. He hosts and produces the program “En quête de politique” on France Inter and writes a daily column for Libération. He is the author of two series of documentary podcasts: À la hussarde on the great moments of the 2017 presidential election and De Gaulle 2020. His publications include Plumes de l’ombre. Les nègres des hommes politiques (with Emmanuel Faux and Gilles Perez, 1991), Petit dictionnaire énervé de la politique (2010), Ce n’est rien qu’un président qui nous fait perdre du temps (2010), J’aurais voulu faire président (with Philippe Bercovici, 2011), Arrêtons d’élire des présidents! (2014), Chronique de l’imprévu (2017), L’histoire de la Ve République en BD (2018, with François Warzala).
With Joohee Bourgain (teacher and activist)
and Philippe Vitale (sociologist, AMU professor and researcher at LEST-CNRS)
Moderator: Thomas Legrand
With the participation of Caroline Chenu, in charge of research and collections at Mucem.
In Canada, “residential schools” were designed to bring aboriginal children together and assimilate them into Canadian society. It is estimated that 150,000 Inuit or Métis attended these schools between the end of the 19th century and the end of the 20th.
In France, 2,000 children from Reunion Island were taken from their parents between 1962 and 1984 and forcibly sent to France to populate the Creuse region! Proof that the transfer of populations, and children in particular, continued long after the decolonizations…
This session will take a broader look at childhood in exile and transracial adoptions: how do you find your identity?
The podcast episode
Joohee Bourgain (teacher, activist)
Joohee Bourgain, a secondary school teacher, is also an anti-racist and feminist activist. Convinced of the need to make a critical discourse on international adoption visible and to reconsider adoption from the adoptees’ point of view, she published L’adoption internationale, mythes et réalités (Editions Anacaona, May 2021) with the desire to free the word and bring this subject into the public debate.
Philippe Vitale (sociologist, AMU professor and LEST-CNRS researcher)
Philippe Vitale © Philippe Vitale
Philippe Vitale is a sociologist, university professor at Aix-Marseille University and researcher at the Laboratoire d’Economie et de Sociologie du Travail (LEST-CNRS). Specializing in education, culture and knowledge, he has worked on mobility in the French overseas territories. In 2016, he was appointed chairman of a national commission of experts dedicated to the transplantation of the said Réunionnais de la Creuse (1962-1984). A report was submitted to the government and published by La Documentation française (available online). He is the author of numerous articles and several books, including Les enfants de la Creuse: Idées reçues sur la transplantation de mineurs de La Réunion en France (2021), Enseigner l’histoire des enfants de La Creuse (2021), Mobilités ultramarines (2015).
Thomas Legrand (journalist, political columnist)
Thomas Legrand is a journalist and political columnist. He hosts and produces the program “En quête de politique” on France Inter and writes a daily column for Libération. He is the author of two series of documentary podcasts: À la hussarde on the great moments of the 2017 presidential election and De Gaulle 2020. His publications include Plumes de l’ombre. Les nègres des hommes politiques (with Emmanuel Faux and Gilles Perez, 1991), Petit dictionnaire énervé de la politique (2010), Ce n’est rien qu’un président qui nous fait perdre du temps (2010), J’aurais voulu faire président (with Philippe Bercovici, 2011), Arrêtons d’élire des présidents! (2014), Chronique de l’imprévu (2017), L’histoire de la Ve République en BD (2018, with François Warzala).
