The unveiling of a museum in Paris usually merits a fanfare of officialdom. But when the new museum of immigration, the Cité Nationale de l'Histoire de l'Immigration, opened its doors to the public at the end of last year, neither President Sarkozy nor any government representatives were present.
At a time when immigration is the hot topic in a country repeatedly referred to as undergoing an identity crisis and amid a furore over a new law for DNA testing would-be immigrants, this came as little surprise.
Although one in three French people can claim an immigrant parent, grandparent or great-grandparent, the DNA dispute was only the most recent in a series of immigration scandals that have rocked France since the 2005 riots, and multiculturalism remains an alien concept in the republican ideal.
Bearing that in mind, the museum carefully avoids polemic and points out that it focuses on the contributions made by immigrants, rather than the associated problems.
Housed in a building dating from the 1931 International Colonial Exposition, the facade's art deco frieze shows French colonial labourers toiling for the empire. Historical context, say the museum's creators, is what this museum is all about. Keen to stress its role as a centre rather than a museum, it was conceived as an interactive locale to which immigrants can contribute.
Exploring two centuries of immigration to France, photography and interactive displays document the lives of immigrants, alongside artists' installations and personal memorabilia.
Despite its quiet launch, visitor figures - more than 25,000 in the fortnight after opening - surpassed expectations. "This project was conceived and realised in response to what we suspected was a growing public need," says its director, Patricia Sitruk. "Today, we see that we were right."
Globalisation and mobile populations mean that immigration is an issue that now touches every country. Yet the museum sector has been slow to respond, and when it does, as in the case of Paris, it can lay itself open to criticism.
Some critics of the Cité Nationale focused on its displays. Accustomed to the orthodox approach favoured by the capital's other museums, visitors were taken aback by a presentation that eschewed chronology to focus on individual narrative threads, which throw up points of discussion.
But in a similar way to other immigration museums, the objectives in Paris appear to be less the representation of the past, with an emphasis on pedagogy and debate, and more the promotion of social cohesion in the future. It seems that in dealing with a subject as difficult as immigration, the traditional history museum has been replaced by a museum of "living" memory.
This is an approach used by Denmark's Museum of Immigration in Farum. Opened in 1987 to serve as an archive for information and stories about immigration, the museum now has a permanent display, as well as temporary exhibitions. However, its most widely used resource is the database that allows people to trace their ancestors.
Curator Susanne Krogh Jensen says: "Because we function on a local level, our displays deal with micro-history, as opposed to the more global approach that a museum such as Paris takes. The first 10 years of the museum were concerned with building up knowledge of immigration in Denmark. We also recorded stories of individual immigrants, and our database is continually expanding."
Apart from the database, the museum functions on a local level, explains Jensen. She adds that they are aware of current debates about immigration.
"Our current exhibition deals with teenage immigrants, their experiences and their view of the world, so this involves looking at issues of racism and prejudice. We try to challenge stereotypes.
"For example, after the scandal over the cartoons [satirising the prophet Muhammad], we showed video interviews to present people with different faces and aspects of immigration. In the long term, we would like to participate more in public and academic debate and to work more closely with similar institutions abroad."
Are immigration museums needed?
However, aside from the well-known examples at Ellis Island, New York, and Museum Victoria in Melbourne, museums of immigration are few and far between.
In London, the Museum of Immigration and Diversity at 19 Princelet Street is so desperately short of funding that it is closed for most of the year, while campaigners try to raise £3m for urgent repairs to the listed building.
It relies on volunteers for the few days a year the museum is open. Visitors can see exhibits that tell the story of the many foreigners who have arrived in London's East End over the centuries and helped to shape both the area and British society.
Chair of the trustees Susie Symes says the museum has unique value as a symbol of Britain's cultural diversity, as well as being a place of education. But so far, it has failed to attract government funding. It has also proved difficult to raise funds for a multicultural project among individual immigrant communities.
But does London really need a museum of immigration? Jack Lohman, director of the Museum of London, believes that a museum of immigration is an outmoded concept. "You need to look around at what we have and at what is lacking," he says.
"Focusing on immigration always entails a political agenda. I think there are much more useful and inclusive ways to look at the phenomenon of migration. Language, for example, would be an easier way to look at the effects of migration. We need to balance the fact that English has become a globalised language."
Necessary or not, in countries where museums of immigration have opened, they have received much popular support. The Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York, which opened in 1990, attracts more than 2 million visitors a year. The museum, which has three floors of exhibits, was previously the depot that processed nearly 12 million immigrants between 1892 and 1954.
Peg Zitko, vice-president of public affairs at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Foundation, says Americans consider themselves to be a nation of immigrants who like to celebrate their diversity.
"When we opened, genealogy had just become very popular and a lot of people came here, and still do, in the hope of tracing family members," she says. "Visitors come here and step through the process of immigration as it was experienced. We have wall panels, 2,000 oral histories, personal treasures and large photographs. For many people, it is a very emotional experience."
Catalysts for integration?
Fundraising for an extension to the museum, which will be called the Peopling of America Centre, is being undertaken. Unlike the experience of 19 Princelet Street, Ellis Island has found great support among the country's biggest ethnic groups.
"We have found, however, that it is a challenge to get corporate sponsors because immigration is such a volatile issue these days," says Zitko.
At Museum Victoria in Melbourne, the Immigration Museum explores immigrants' stories from the 1800s to the present day through moving images, interactive computers, voices, memories and belongings.
There is also a Discovery Centre that contains a range of information about family history research. The museum's director, Patrick Greene, says it has received wide public and critical acclaim. "I arrived here five and a half years ago, and in that time, we have seen visitor numbers increase from 70,000 to 125,000 a year," he says.
"Melbourne prides itself on being a multicultural society, and at the museum, we see ourselves as an important catalyst for social integration. We have a traditional approach in that we focus on objects to tell the big story through the stories of individuals, we have exhibits that capture the imagination, and the emphasis is on know-ledge. People want to learn about their past."
Greene says that once people have been involved with an exhibition or a festival, they become part of the museum's network. "In Australia, unless you are indigenous, everybody is originally from somewhere else," he adds. "We see ourselves as having a very active role in the community supporting multiculturalism and social cohesion."
In countries where immigration remains a politically contentious and emotive issue, museums of immigration can court controversy - if they choose to.
Hannah Westley is a freelance journalist based in France
At a time when immigration is the hot topic in a country repeatedly referred to as undergoing an identity crisis and amid a furore over a new law for DNA testing would-be immigrants, this came as little surprise.
Although one in three French people can claim an immigrant parent, grandparent or great-grandparent, the DNA dispute was only the most recent in a series of immigration scandals that have rocked France since the 2005 riots, and multiculturalism remains an alien concept in the republican ideal.
Bearing that in mind, the museum carefully avoids polemic and points out that it focuses on the contributions made by immigrants, rather than the associated problems.
Housed in a building dating from the 1931 International Colonial Exposition, the facade's art deco frieze shows French colonial labourers toiling for the empire. Historical context, say the museum's creators, is what this museum is all about. Keen to stress its role as a centre rather than a museum, it was conceived as an interactive locale to which immigrants can contribute.
Exploring two centuries of immigration to France, photography and interactive displays document the lives of immigrants, alongside artists' installations and personal memorabilia.
Despite its quiet launch, visitor figures - more than 25,000 in the fortnight after opening - surpassed expectations. "This project was conceived and realised in response to what we suspected was a growing public need," says its director, Patricia Sitruk. "Today, we see that we were right."
Globalisation and mobile populations mean that immigration is an issue that now touches every country. Yet the museum sector has been slow to respond, and when it does, as in the case of Paris, it can lay itself open to criticism.
Some critics of the Cité Nationale focused on its displays. Accustomed to the orthodox approach favoured by the capital's other museums, visitors were taken aback by a presentation that eschewed chronology to focus on individual narrative threads, which throw up points of discussion.
But in a similar way to other immigration museums, the objectives in Paris appear to be less the representation of the past, with an emphasis on pedagogy and debate, and more the promotion of social cohesion in the future. It seems that in dealing with a subject as difficult as immigration, the traditional history museum has been replaced by a museum of "living" memory.
This is an approach used by Denmark's Museum of Immigration in Farum. Opened in 1987 to serve as an archive for information and stories about immigration, the museum now has a permanent display, as well as temporary exhibitions. However, its most widely used resource is the database that allows people to trace their ancestors.
Curator Susanne Krogh Jensen says: "Because we function on a local level, our displays deal with micro-history, as opposed to the more global approach that a museum such as Paris takes. The first 10 years of the museum were concerned with building up knowledge of immigration in Denmark. We also recorded stories of individual immigrants, and our database is continually expanding."
Apart from the database, the museum functions on a local level, explains Jensen. She adds that they are aware of current debates about immigration.
"Our current exhibition deals with teenage immigrants, their experiences and their view of the world, so this involves looking at issues of racism and prejudice. We try to challenge stereotypes.
"For example, after the scandal over the cartoons [satirising the prophet Muhammad], we showed video interviews to present people with different faces and aspects of immigration. In the long term, we would like to participate more in public and academic debate and to work more closely with similar institutions abroad."
Are immigration museums needed?
However, aside from the well-known examples at Ellis Island, New York, and Museum Victoria in Melbourne, museums of immigration are few and far between.
In London, the Museum of Immigration and Diversity at 19 Princelet Street is so desperately short of funding that it is closed for most of the year, while campaigners try to raise £3m for urgent repairs to the listed building.
It relies on volunteers for the few days a year the museum is open. Visitors can see exhibits that tell the story of the many foreigners who have arrived in London's East End over the centuries and helped to shape both the area and British society.
Chair of the trustees Susie Symes says the museum has unique value as a symbol of Britain's cultural diversity, as well as being a place of education. But so far, it has failed to attract government funding. It has also proved difficult to raise funds for a multicultural project among individual immigrant communities.
But does London really need a museum of immigration? Jack Lohman, director of the Museum of London, believes that a museum of immigration is an outmoded concept. "You need to look around at what we have and at what is lacking," he says.
"Focusing on immigration always entails a political agenda. I think there are much more useful and inclusive ways to look at the phenomenon of migration. Language, for example, would be an easier way to look at the effects of migration. We need to balance the fact that English has become a globalised language."
Necessary or not, in countries where museums of immigration have opened, they have received much popular support. The Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York, which opened in 1990, attracts more than 2 million visitors a year. The museum, which has three floors of exhibits, was previously the depot that processed nearly 12 million immigrants between 1892 and 1954.
Peg Zitko, vice-president of public affairs at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Foundation, says Americans consider themselves to be a nation of immigrants who like to celebrate their diversity.
"When we opened, genealogy had just become very popular and a lot of people came here, and still do, in the hope of tracing family members," she says. "Visitors come here and step through the process of immigration as it was experienced. We have wall panels, 2,000 oral histories, personal treasures and large photographs. For many people, it is a very emotional experience."
Catalysts for integration?
Fundraising for an extension to the museum, which will be called the Peopling of America Centre, is being undertaken. Unlike the experience of 19 Princelet Street, Ellis Island has found great support among the country's biggest ethnic groups.
"We have found, however, that it is a challenge to get corporate sponsors because immigration is such a volatile issue these days," says Zitko.
At Museum Victoria in Melbourne, the Immigration Museum explores immigrants' stories from the 1800s to the present day through moving images, interactive computers, voices, memories and belongings.
There is also a Discovery Centre that contains a range of information about family history research. The museum's director, Patrick Greene, says it has received wide public and critical acclaim. "I arrived here five and a half years ago, and in that time, we have seen visitor numbers increase from 70,000 to 125,000 a year," he says.
"Melbourne prides itself on being a multicultural society, and at the museum, we see ourselves as an important catalyst for social integration. We have a traditional approach in that we focus on objects to tell the big story through the stories of individuals, we have exhibits that capture the imagination, and the emphasis is on know-ledge. People want to learn about their past."
Greene says that once people have been involved with an exhibition or a festival, they become part of the museum's network. "In Australia, unless you are indigenous, everybody is originally from somewhere else," he adds. "We see ourselves as having a very active role in the community supporting multiculturalism and social cohesion."
In countries where immigration remains a politically contentious and emotive issue, museums of immigration can court controversy - if they choose to.
Hannah Westley is a freelance journalist based in France
