Assistance and repression: rural exodus, vagabondage and social crisis in France, 1880-1914

Journal of Social History, Summer, 1999 by Timothy B. Smith

France was on the move as never before in the nineteenth century, and here was part of the problem, for many arrested 'vagabonds' were in fact destitute rural migrants. The Conseil superieur de l'assistance publique (the Superior Council of Public Assistance, a government-named council of social policy experts - and amateurs - founded in 1888) noted in 1899 that the "involuntarily unemployed" who took to the road in search of work were too often arrested for vagabondage.(25) Between 1872 and 1911, the population of the department of the Rhone increased by 246,000, almost entirely due to migration from the Massif Central, the Savoie and other poor regions. During the period 18721896, roughly six to eight thousand people arrived in the Rhone each year; between 1906 and 1911, 14,000 arrived each year.(26) Most of these people settled in the Lyon area. Nationwide, over three million people left agriculture between 1876 and 1911 (in contrast, only 790,000 had left the countryside between 1831 and 1851 and 1,715,000 had left during the thirty year period 1851-1881).(27) Between 1881 and 1891, 55 departments suffered from net population losses due to migration; 58 suffered the same fate during the next decade, and 62 in the first decade of the twentieth century. French towns, but especially villages (those with a population of less than 2,000), were emptying at an alarming rate. Above all it was the rural marginals who left during the crisis of the 1880s. Those who stayed were the lucky ones still capable of eking out an existence, and many who stayed behind in fact saw their fortunes rise.(28)

In the short five year period 1906-1911, the rural population of France decreased by 618,000 and the urban population increased by 866,000 people. Some 70,000 people arrived in the Rhone (mostly in Lyon), and some 303,000 arrived in the Seine in this five year period. The poorest parts of France were throwing forth their most impoverished inhabitants: 22,400 left the western department of the Finistere, many arriving at the Gare Montparnasse in search of work, only to fall into deeper misery than that they had fled. Over 18,700 people left the Cotes-du-Nord, 17,000 departed the Morbihan, 14,500 left the Vendee, 13,000 moved from the Correze (Massif Central) and 14,200 fled the Ardeche.(29) In 1903, 62 departments (two-thirds the total) were losing population due to the rural exodus and the low birth rate. The people fleeing the countryside invariably set out for a few large and medium-sized cities, like Paris, Lyon, Rouen, Le Havre and Grenoble.(30) As they made their way to the cities, many were confused with vagabonds and arrested. Many no doubt fell into vagabondage. Of course widespread begging was nothing new to Paris and other cities - in the 1866 census, 37,854 Parisians admitted to being full-time beggars - but what was new was the scale on which it now occurred and authorities' increasing lack of tolerance for it.(31) Although many towns and villages increased their commitment to public relief to help the victims of the rural crisis - during the 1880s, for instance, a village of 700 in the Indre-et-Loire gave nightime refuge and public assistance to over 1,400 vagabonds in a six month period - most of France's largest cities did not.(32)