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Abstract
France lags behind most other Western countries in its degree of ethnic representation, despite the longstanding presence of non-Western minorities in the country. French politicians and the public usually justify this situation by arguing that there are no such things as ethnic minorities in France, and therefore no particular ‘ethnic minority’ interests. Consequently, there is no need to be concerned about ethnic representation; class representation is enough. More recently, attention has centred on the presence of Islam. This frame biases political attention to religious issues related to ethnic minorities, leaving aside major problems such as racial discrimination. In contrast, this article argues that France is very similar to America when it comes to ethnic politics, particularly when analysing the political orientations of non-Western minorities. Without a proper voice to articulate their claims, ethnic minorities see their interests neglected in favour of other issues.
Notes
1. This estimate accounts for all foreign-born persons living in France, their children and grandchildren, regardless of the country of origin.
2. This situation is reminiscent of the intersectionality challenges faced by black women in the United States. Starting in the 1970s, black feminists encountered major difficulties getting heard both by the feminist movement (mostly concerned with a white, middle class women agenda) and the Black movement (mostly focused on the racial agenda). Instead, black women’s issues came from the unique intersectionality of gender and racial status (Crenshaw Citation1989). A similar argument has been made about class and gender in regard to French women’s representation the trade unions of the 1970s (Jaunait and Chauvin Citation2012).
3. In France, non-Western immigrants primarily come from African, Asian and Middle Eastern countries.
4. Gaston Monnerville, an Antillean politician, was president of the Senate in 1959; Senegal-born Léopold Sédar Senghor was elected to parliament in 1945; and Nafissa Sid Cara, of Algerian origin, was appointed Secretary of State in 1959.
5. The data on immigrants elected in the ‘conseils généraux’, councils for the subdivisions of the French regions, are too scarce and too fragmented to draw firm conclusions.
6. Eleven per cent of the population of Ile-de-France is first generation immigrant from African or Asian countries (Ferré 2006). This figure underestimates the share of the immigrant-origin population since it does not include the second generation.
7. See http://barizakhiari.parti-socialiste.fr/2007/03/26/contre-lethnicisation-de-la-question-sociale/
8. Razzy Hammadi has declared being ‘proud of my origins but definitely not reduced to them’ (BFM TV, 18 June 2012). Talking about Seybah Dagoma, Rémy Féraud (mayor of the Xth arrondissement of Paris) said, ‘she is a symbol of French diversity, but she does not want to be a symbol. She wants first to be a socialist MP’ (Le Parisien, 18 June 2012).
9. The HALDE has a mission to prevent all types of discrimination, whether based on gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical impairment, etc.
10. ‘Hollande propose de supprimer le mot “race” de la constitution’, Le Monde, 11 March 2012.
11. Since 2003, the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) collects data on French Muslims’ political preferences and confidence in the President, but not the opinion of groups differentiated by origins or skin colour. http://www.la-croix.com/documents/doc.jsp?docId=2348110&rubId=46750
12. The RAPFI survey, done in 2005, is based on a representative sample of first, second and third generation French of Maghrebian, African and Turkish origin.
13. http://www.travail-emploi-sante.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/cai.pdf. The exact text of the contract is: ‘La France, un pays d’égalité: L’égalité entre les hommes et les femmes est un principe fondamental de la société française. Les femmes ont les mêmes droits et les mêmes devoirs que les hommes. Les parents sont conjointement responsables de leurs enfants. Ce principe s’applique à tous, Français et étrangers. Les femmes ne sont soumises ni à l’autorité du mari, ni à celle du père ou du frère pour, par exemple, travailler, sortir ou ouvrir un compte bancaire. Les mariages forcés et la polygamie sont interdits, tandis que l’intégrité du corps est protégée par la loi.’
14. A recent example of this is the 2010 proposal – by then Minister of Interior Brice Hortefeux – to strip any individual found guilty of practising polygamy of their French citizenship.
16. Cécilia Gabizon, ‘Deux mille femmes portent la burqa en France’, Le figaro, 9 September 2009.
17. The Trajectoires et Origines Survey (TeO) was carried out by the Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE) and the Institut National d’Etudes Démographiques (INED). More on this survey, based on a sample of 10,000 immigrants and 10,000 second generation individuals, is available at http://teo_english.site.ined.fr.
18. There are raw percentage point variations between studies when it comes to left alignments. The differences can be explained by differences in measurement. The OIP survey asked individual if they located themselves politically ‘at the far-left, at the left, at the centre, at the right, at the far-right and not at the left, or the right’. The RAPFI study, in contrast, asked respondents to situate their political alignment between ‘the left, the right, or not the left or the right’. The mention of the political centre creates slight variations in the percentages but the results remain the same; compared with the rest of the French population, the left tropism of New French is striking.
20. For example, depending on respondents’ opinion about whether the number of civil servants is enough or too many, the average probability of the ‘mainstream’ French to support the left ranges between 32 per cent and 41 per cent, whereas for the same position on the number of civil servants, probabilities for ethnic minorities range from 64 per cent to 57 per cent.