In this article we argue that the reports of conductresses accompanying female migrants shed new light on the nature of interwar labour migration. As they mitigated the anxiety and insecurity that women faced during the process of migration, they fulfilled a crucial role in the highly restrictive post-1918 international migration regime. The Polish government introduced conductresses in 1925 to respond to news of the mistreatment and sexual exploitation of Polish women working in France. Developed in close collaboration with international organizations and the League of Nations, the work of these conductresses on land and sea routes was framed as those of ‘moral guardians’ protecting female migrants from the dangers of sex trafficking. However, we argue that their main function was to mitigate the uncertainties of the post-war international order, as traditional routes of migration were ruptured and both dispatching and receiving countries attempted to control and restrict migration. Female migrants had no networks with existing diasporas, were often illiterate, and mistrusted both Polish and French institutions. By addressing these challenges, the conductresses took on roles far beyond their function as moral authority: they acted as translators, knowledge imparters, mediators, and network forgers. Both in Poland and at the international level, the Polish conductress scheme was regarded a success, as they managed to provide a relatively ‘secure’ migration experience within a migration regime designed to walk a fine line between demands for foreign labour on the one hand and the rising ideal of economic protectionism on the other.

中文翻译：

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波兰行为人和女性劳动力移民到法国的不安全感，1925-1929 年


在本文中，我们认为，陪同女性移民的律师报告为两次世界大战之间劳动力移民的性质提供了新的视角。由于它们减轻了女性在移民过程中面临的焦虑和不安全感，它们在 1918 年后高度限制的国际移民制度中发挥了关键作用。波兰政府于 1925 年引入了 conductress，以回应在法国工作的波兰妇女受到虐待和性剥削的消息。这些行为者在与国际组织和国际联盟密切合作后制定，在陆路和海路上的工作被定义为保护女性移民免受性贩运危险的“道德守护者”。然而，我们认为，它们的主要功能是减轻战后国际秩序的不确定性，因为传统的移民路线被打破，派遣国和接收国都试图控制和限制移民。女性移民与现有的侨民没有关系网，往往是文盲，并且不信任波兰和法国的机构。通过应对这些挑战，女行为者承担了远远超出其道德权威功能的角色：她们充当翻译、知识传授者、调解者和网络伪造者。无论是在波兰还是在国际层面，波兰 conductress 计划都被认为是成功的，因为他们设法在移民制度中提供相对“安全”的移民体验，该移民制度旨在在对外国劳动力的需求和日益增长的经济保护主义理想之间游走。