Question

Why would a French person immigrate in the late nineteenth century?

Answer 1

Check this website, especially the paragraph beginning:

"The moderates however became deeply divided over the Dreyfus Affair, and this allowed the Radicals eventually to gain power from 1899 until World War I."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_France#The_Restored_Monarchy_and_the_Second_Empire