# How easy was it for African-Americans at the end of WWI to settle in France. Did France offer them citizenship? Was the application difficult? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 19, 2024, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-was-it-for-african-americans-at-the-end-of-wwi-to-settle-in-france-did-france-offer-them-citizenship-was-the-application-difficult/999039 "2024-03-19T14:00:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-was-it-for-african-americans-at-the-end-of-wwi-to-settle-in-france-did-france-offer-them-citizenship-was-the-application-difficult/999039/1 "2024-03-19T14:00:51Z")
How easy was it for African-Americans at the end of WWI to settle in France. Did France offer them citizenship? Was the application difficult ? Did getting the necessary documents from the US pose any problems? ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-was-it-for-african-americans-at-the-end-of-wwi-to-settle-in-france-did-france-offer-them-citizenship-was-the-application-difficult/999039/2 "2024-03-19T14:30:18Z")
As easy as for any other US citizen. How easy was it for US citizens to immigrate to France in the years after 1945? I have no information about visa or naturalisation requirements for US citizens specifically, but in the years after the war France suffered a labour shortage and was generally promoting immigration. Ican’t imagine they’d have gone out of their way to put barriers in the way of US citizens that citizens of other countries didn’t face. So getting a visa to settle and work in France was probably not difficult. As for acquiring citizenship, the French were relatively open about that too; they wanted to encourage people to remain. If you had lived lawfully in France for (I think) five years, had no criminal record, had a basic knowledge of the French language and could demonstrate a familiarity with republican values, you could be naturalised as a French citizen. A naturalised French citizen was not required to renounce their former nationality; they could be dual citizens. On edit: Oh, sorry, you’re asking about after WWI, not WWII. The considerations were broadly similar; France had been actively promoting immigration since the late nineteenth century, and was particularl open to it in the years after WWI because (again) of a labour shortage due to the level of casualties suffered in the war. So I think settling there would not have been difficult. Naturalising as a French citizen, though, I think was difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-was-it-for-african-americans-at-the-end-of-wwi-to-settle-in-france-did-france-offer-them-citizenship-was-the-application-difficult/999039/3 "2024-03-19T14:51:53Z")
Thanks US 1. Presumably earning the Croix de Guerre could only have helped. ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-was-it-for-african-americans-at-the-end-of-wwi-to-settle-in-france-did-france-offer-them-citizenship-was-the-application-difficult/999039/4 "2024-03-20T01:03:05Z")
Couldn’t have hurt. One of the routes to naturalisation in France was serving in the French armed forces. Getting the croix de guerre for service in the US forces in alliance with France isn’t quite the same thing, but it must have helped to ensure a generally favourable disposition. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-was-it-for-african-americans-at-the-end-of-wwi-to-settle-in-france-did-france-offer-them-citizenship-was-the-application-difficult/999039/5 "2024-03-20T16:11:19Z")
The official and practical position of the French government since their revolution has been that they are “color-blind”. African-American artists (especially Jazz singers and other musicians) were among the American ex-pats most admired by the French after WWI and the fact that they were given more respect in France than they were in their own country was a source of well deserved pride for France and shame for the United States. > **[African Americans in France | World War I and the interwar period](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans_in_France?wprov=sfti1#World_War_I_and_the_interwar_period)** > > Paris saw the beginnings of an African-American community in the aftermath of World War I, during which roughly 200,000 African American soldiers were brought over, most for non-combat duties. Nine-tenths of the soldiers were from the American South. The 369th Infantry Regiment of New York, better known as the Harlem Hellfighters, were the first to arrive in France in 1917. One member, Sergeant Henry Johnson, was the first American Soldier to be awarded the Croix de guerre with palm by the Fre It... ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-was-it-for-african-americans-at-the-end-of-wwi-to-settle-in-france-did-france-offer-them-citizenship-was-the-application-difficult/999039/6 "2024-03-20T17:02:07Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > African-American artists (especially Jazz singers and other musicians) were among the American ex-pats most admired by the French after WWI and the fact that they were given more respect in France than they were in their own country was a source of well deserved pride for France and shame for the United States. Yes, the first person I thought about when reading the OP was probably the most famous of those African American artists in France after WW I, Josephine Baker, who came to Paris in 1925 and became a sensation there and then in whole Europe. She became a naturalized French citizen in 1935, worked in the réstistance in WW II and got honors and medals for her services after the war from the French state. > **[Josephine Baker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker)** > > Freda Josephine Baker (née McDonald; June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975), naturalized as Joséphine Baker, was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in France. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant. > During her early career, Baker was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergère in Paris...