Des migrants invisibles ?

During the Modern Period, the condition of the French migrant is fragile. He comes from a suspicious community that does not exist in substance, that of the "French", and is a part of an evolving category, the one of people without "rights". His foreign origin can also be an advantage and he can make it work in his favour. He cannot be defined as being from a State, yet his condition is inseparable from the international conjuncture and the construction of evolving modern States. Actually, to question the stakes in the reception of the French migrants is an open window to a better understanding of the social and political culture of the Spanish Low Countries. Indeed, this work probes the mechanisms of self-definition in border provinces within a catholic global empire, the Spanish Monarchy, in front of France. The exercise of power and the capacity for action appear there as the result of an equilibrium in which all social actors are negotiating their position. Most of all, it is the result of a dialogue fueled by the protagonists of History themselves.