Underground Histories: Border Transgression and Subversion in the Minette (1919-1939)

The history of the French-Luxembourgish border has been marked by the rapid growth of the iron and steel industry and the massive influx of immigrants coming to work in this cross-border industrial region. Employing a microhistorical lens and a relational approach, this doctoral research explores how border regimes were transgressed by everyday smuggling or subverted by Italian communist networks in the interwar years. Outlawed behaviours across the French-Luxembourgish frontier speak not only about border-making processes, but they also shed light on the intimate link between borders and larger historical themes such as state apparatuses, immigrant communities in industrial contexts, or political currents circulating across interwar Western Europe. Deeply embedded in everyday life, border transgression and subversion pushed the limits of legality, challenging the legitimacy of border authorities and laying bare the pitfalls of national sovereignty in the margins.