Biography

Born on August 23, 1938 to Corsican parents; his mother was a teacher and his father was first a teacher and then a general practitioner. They were recognized as “righteous among the nations” for hiding Jewish children during the Second World War.

After obtaining his baccalaureate, Xavier Emmanuelli divided his time between the faculty of medicine at “Paris Sorbonne” (Philosophy section, which he soon after abandoned) and his passions: drawing (he is very close to the Hara Kiri band), jazz and cinema. He graduated as a doctor in 1967.

He graduated as a doctor of merchant medicine and joined the maritime courier, The Tahitian.
Then he became a general practitioner at the Coal Basin of the Freyming-Merlebach Mines.
At the same time, he became part of the founding team of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), with a desire to create an international emergency relief effort.

In parallel, from 1972 to 1975, at the Center Hospitalier Henri Mondor, he was the assistant to Professor Pierre Huguenard for the creation and development of SAMU 94, one of the first Emergency Medical Aid Services. As an anesthesiologist and reanimator, this experience was particularly rewarding in that he regarded Professor Huguenard as his greatest influence.

He was appointed medical officer of Fleury Mérogis detention centers in 1988. He fought to remove the medicine from the prison and attached it to the Departmental Directorate of Health and Social Affairs (DDASS). Discovering the ravages of AIDS and addiction, he described the clinical elements of exclusion and in particular, the fundamental codes in the clinic: Body, Time, Space and Proxemity.

From 1992 to 1995 Xavier Emmanuelli was a hospital practitioner at the Care and Accommodation Center at the Nanterre hospital. He described a new clinical approach to social exclusion observed during consultations with the homeless.
He then imagined, quite naturally, a social SAMU like the medical SAMU, which he had helped to create, in order to take charge of people in situations of exclusion. His project intrigued Mr Jacques Chirac, Mayor of Paris at the time, who helped him to create the Samusocial of Paris. The project started on 23 November 1993

From 1995 to 1997, he was appointed Secretary of State for Emergency Humanitarian Action by President Jacques Chirac.

In 1998, he also founded the Samusocial International, in order to address the high levels of exclusion amongst homeless people in big cities of the world. Always President of this association, he participates in his development by delivering his expertise on social exclusion and medico-psychosocial care to municipal and government authorities interested in his “samusocial” method.

Influenced by the importance of the transmission of values and knowledge, he created, in 2005, a reserve body easily mobilized, of retired professionals “Les Transmetteurs”. Based on the implicit and explicit experience, Xavier Emmanuelli has put in place original and pragmatic training actions for high school students destined for the trades of accompaniment.

He has always been committed to issues that affect the most excluded and disadvantaged, and he is involved in working groups, committees and foundations.
Over the course of his career, Xavier Emmanuelli has published various essays, articles and books on emergency medicine and social exclusion and developed lessons on disaster medicine,
caring for disadvantaged children, social exclusion, Etc.