French imported colonial labor forces

[Minchandre]

Hello, all. For the sake of a timeline I'm baking, I'm trying to figure out if the French ever imported colonial labor forces/what kind, like the British tended to do with Indians (e.g. to South Africa, Guyana) and the Dutch with Indonesians (again, South African and Suriname). Are there any examples of French importing large labor forces of natives from colony to colony, say sub-Saharan Africans to Pondicherry or Indians to Vietnam or Vietnamese to Polynesia? I know that today, Chinese upper classes predominate in much of once-French Polynesia, but those are upper classes, not labor forces, and I'm pretty sure that they weren't brought intentionally by the French.

And the labor force need not be only slaves-in-all-but-name. The French colony I have in mind in hot and desert-y, but will have ample need for engineers as well as manual laborers. Would that see importation of urban Indians from the French colonies? Pieds-noirs? Middle-class Vietnamese, attracted by higher-than-home salaries?

I've searched a bit around the internet, but I'm not entirely certain the search string to use, and searching for Indian South Africans and Guyanese didn't turn up too many "also, the French did something just like this with Cambodians" sort of things.

 

[funnyhat]

Many Lebanese people moved to francophone West Africa in the 1920s, after the mandate over Lebanon had been established. (There had been some before this time, but their numbers increased dramatically after the French Mandate was established.) They were more traders than laborers.

There were also some Indians (particularly Tamils) who moved to the French West Indies in the late 19th century.

 

[Simreeve]

I don't know how accurate 'South Pacific' was, but that had some Vietnamese on a French-run island in the Pacific...

 

[Jonathan Edelstein]

There are Javanese, Vietnamese and Wallisians in New Caledonia.

 

[Minchandre]

Many Lebanese people moved to francophone West Africa in the 1920s, after the mandate over Lebanon had been established. (There had been some before this time, but their numbers increased dramatically after the French Mandate was established.) They were more traders than laborers.

There were also some Indians (particularly Tamils) who moved to the French West Indies in the late 19th century.

There are Javanese, Vietnamese and Wallisians in New Caledonia.

Thanks for the responses! I'll probably go with Vietnamese being the "best known" to give distinction from the Dutch (who will use Javanese primarily), and Lebanese and Pieds-Noirs for the "middle class"...

 

[funnyhat]

Thanks for the responses! I'll probably go with Vietnamese being the "best known" to give distinction from the Dutch (who will use Javanese primarily), and Lebanese and Pieds-Noirs for the "middle class"...

Note that the Pieds-noirs were white settlers in North Africa.

 

[Minchandre]

Note that the Pieds-noirs were white settlers in North Africa.

Yes, I know; but the Metropolitan French tended to look down on them, and there was a general culture of white French colonists moving about the colonies. Note that they're there to provided an educated middle-class of colonial labor; they'll mostly be the ones abusing the Vietnamese, not the ones being abused (except more subtly by the Paris-born high management)

 

[arkades]

There is a little known story about Vietnamese sent in Camargue (in southern France) to cultivate rice.
It was in the 50s and 60s IIRC.