Boundaries of Frenchness: cultural citizenship and France’s middle-class North African second-generation

Abstract

Based on 45 interviews in the Paris metropolitan area, I focus on the middle-class segment of France’s North African second-generation and use the framework of cultural citizenship to explain why these individuals continue to experience symbolic exclusion despite their attainment of a middle-class status. Even though they are successful in terms of professional and educational accomplishments and are assimilated by traditional measures, they nonetheless feel excluded from mainstream French society. Because of this exclusion, they do not feel they are perceived as full citizens. I also discuss how this segment of France’s second-generation draws boundaries around being French and how they relate to these boundaries. Despite their citizenship and their ties to France, they are often perceived as foreigners and have their ‘Frenchness’ contested by their compatriots. I argue they are denied cultural citizenship, because of their North African ethnic origin, which would allow them to be accepted by others as part of France. Applying cultural citizenship as an analytical framework provides an understanding of the socio-cultural realities of being a minority and reveals how citizenship operates in everyday life.

Keywords:

• immigration
• Maghrébin
• North African
• identity
• cultural citizenship
• France
• middle-class

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by funding from the European University Institute Max Weber Programme. Preliminary versions of this article were presented at the 2011 Franco-Maghrebi Crossings Conference, the 2012 Council for European Studies conference and the European University Institute. I thank participants for their feedback. For their helpful comments and suggestions, I thank Rainer Baubock, Jean-Pierre Cassarino, Achim Edelmann, Marcus Anthony Hunter, Deborah Reed-Danahey, Lyn Spillman and Stephen Vaisey. I also thank the reviewers for their useful comments. Finally, I thank my respondents for their generosity and participation. All errors are my own.

Notes

1. A note regarding terminology: When I indicate that someone is of a particular origin, I mean that he or she is a child of an immigrant from that particular country. Alternatively, I use the terms ‘second-generation immigrant’ and ‘North African second-generation’. While I follow the convention of research on second-generation immigrants in the United States in using the term ‘second-generation immigrants’, I recognise the issues associated with this term, as it can also imply that they inherited an immigrant status (Constant 2009). See Begag 2007 for more on terminology as it relates to this population in France.

2. While Noura lives in subsidised housing, it is important to clarify how this does not automatically mean she is economically disadvantaged (Stovall 2003).

3. French colonialism complicates this dynamic as well, for members of colonies were French nationals but not citizens (Alba and Silberman 2002).

4. The French census classifies its populations into three categories: French by birth, French by naturalisation and foreign (Kastoryano 2004).

5. Following the lead of my respondents, I use the term white throughout this article to refer to français de souche or those of native French-European origin for simplicity’s sake, even though I recognise that ‘white’ is not a commonly used racial term in French society. Even though much of the extant literature uses the term native French, I use ‘white’, since the children of immigrants, being born in France, are also native French people.

6. On 27 October 2005, two teenagers – one of Tunisian origin and the other of Malian origin – were electrocuted in an electricity substation as they fled police in the Clichy-sous-Bois banlieue. They were apparently trying to avoid the constant police identity checks targeted towards youths. A few days later, police emptied a tear-gas grenade inside a local mosque and refused to apologise. These events led to riots, which spread in banlieues throughout France for about 3 weeks (Koff and Duprez 2009).

7. Note that this is Nasser’s perceptions of what people think being French is, not an empirically accurate description of the French population.

8. It is important to note, however, that these findings are based on the middle-class segment of the second-generation population, and additional research should be conducted to examine how socioeconomic status impacts these dynamics.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jean Beaman

JEAN BEAMAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Purdue University