L'Association des Suisses spoliés d'Algérie ou d'outre-mer (ASSAOM). Un héritage colonial?

In the nineteenth century, the French colonized Algeria through settlement. But as French population growth was slow, few immigrants could be found who were interested in taking up residency in North Africa. As a result, France also actively recruited immigrants from Switzerland. In 1962, as a result of Algerian independence, the Swiss living in Algeria also repatriated. They were part of a wave of returning Europeans, and as members of an ‘overseas community', made claims. Could their respective governments (Swiss, French, etc.) help these returning citizens who were trying to protect their property in a former colony, safeguard their accumulated pensions, or obtain compensation for expropriated property? Switzerland is an unusual case: it did not have colonies, at least as administratively understood, but it did have colonists in Algeria (and other countries), so does it nevertheless have a colonial heritage? Are there similarities with other European countries that played a role in Africa during the colonial period? This article analyses the Swiss of Algeria and the Association des Suisses spoliés d'Algérie ou d'outre-mer, founded in Geneva in 1967 in order to seek compensation for the loss of property after Algerian independence. It focuses on colonial and postcolonial relationships and how they were, and are, negotiated and reproduced in Switzerland