« d'où venez-vous, braves gens ? ». l'exil de masse des réfugiés de la première guerre mondiale dans l'ouest de la france

During the First World War, about 2 million refugees had to leave their place of residence, chased away by the fights, they exile themself far from the battlefront. In the West of France, 150 000 evacuees, refugees or repatriates were in this way welcomed. From autumn 1914, their integration aroused difficulties, minor at the beginning but which became more important from 1915. In a context of prolonged war which nobody had predicted, their sociocultural profile was quickly considered as incompatible with the expectations of autochtonous populations, mainly rural and in this unaccustomed “discovery of the difference”.