Polish-French agreements regarding social security in the inter-war period

Abstract

In the years 1918–1939 over 600 thousand persons emigrated from Poland to France. Large numbers of Poles, who had previously lived in Westphalia and the Rhineland province, also came over to France. Amongst the Polish emigrants there was a predominance of workers and miners, and there were considerably fewer farmers. This article aims to demonstrate the steps taken by the Polish authorities to secure social security benefits, (in particular retirement pensions and disability pensions) for Poles who decided to take up paid employment in France. The source database which this article draws on is archived materials, legal acts and specialist press relating to the period being researched.
The Polish authorities undertook the first attempts to guarantee social security benefits for Poles in France directly after the end of the First World War, signing a emigration agreement with France, which included the first social security records. However, it did not resolve the key issues of retirement pension and disability pension. In subsequent years further activities were conducted in this area, the greatest achievement being the signing of the agreement relating to miners benefits in 1929. Negotiations in the matter of the Polish-French insurance convention covering all types of social benefits were interrupted on the outbreak of the Second World War. It was signed after the war, in 1948.