Under the mentorship of Professor Bradley, I studied how the International Organization for Migration (ICEM) responded to a Western agenda and contributed to strengthening the right-wing dictatorships in South America by moving European people according to both their technological skills and political ideas. The organization was created in the aftermath of the Second World War to answer to the overpopulation crisis in Europe. European settlers were sent abroad, such as in Australia or in Latin America. These countries were specifically members of the ICEM because they needed – skilled - labor force.
I was particularly interested in ARIA in the first place because it was an opportunity to discover the world of Research. It was all the more beneficial for me since Professor Bradley’s field of expertise – migration international law – concerns me a lot. Also, the fact that she is working on an understudied organization such as the ICEM is notably significant since it implies that everything is to be done, and that every work on the matter can only improve our knowledge. Not only did I feel myself as a Researcher, but I also liked to see myself as an Explorer, digging information that has not been reported in research papers before.
ARIA gave me the opportunity to visit extraordinary places of archives in France. I went in four different places, including the French National Archives and the Centre des Archives diplomatiques du ministère des Affaires étrangères. I loved being surrounded by experts in their own domains and feeling part of this world. The idea that I contributed to Knowledge was probably the best sensation that I had during ARIA. When I unearthed important materials, such as correspondence between officials, I knew why I was doing what I was doing. However, sometimes, my research was stalled because I was not finding any interesting materials or because I did not know where or what to look for anymore. Hopefully, Professor Bradley helped me find sense and direction. In other cases, I found solutions by myself and formed other paths that advanced my work. In such instances, reading articles or books which subjects were broader allowed me to take a step back and to find new ideas.
I believe that ARIA taught me how to be more thoughtful and efficient when researching, a quality that will help me for my future papers, here at McGill and beyond. More generally, ARIA and Professor Bradley provided me with my first experience of research and made me realized that it represented a possible career choice. We tend to think that in 2022 everything is known, which turns out to be wrong. We have new ideas and new paradigms that provide us new world views. For instance, Professor Bradley’s work, and mine in less extent, explore institutions with decolonial/postcolonial/TWAIL lenses, fields that were not considered decades ago. The sky really is the limit!
All of this was possible thanks to the generosity of Mr. Harry Samuel. Thank you for giving me – and other students – such opportunities. It helped me envisioning other possible futures. I also hope that my work will help academic further their projects. Studying the impact of the ICEM, nowadays known as the IOM, on South America’s right-wing dictatorships is significant because the organization’s involvement has been understudied, unknown and unrecognized. It implies that its current practices are unchallenged, which question their legitimacy. What we take for granted today, such as the IOM and in general the UN may not be the perfect picture that we imagine, and that is why we must continue to study their past and present, to better their improve.
