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Diaspora, Difference, and France's Maghrebin Second-Generation
Abstract
Based on ethnographic research in France, I explore how the Maghrebin second-generation in France makes conceives of a diaspora connecting France and the Maghreb, as well as other regions, as a way to cope with their marginalization from mainstream French society. Despite an official “masking” of difference based on Republican ideology, France has an increasingly narrow definition of what it means to be “French,” a definition which often excludes particular populations within French society, including those who were born in France to parents from former French colonies in North Africa. I consider how they invoke a transnational blackness in making sense of their marginalization and social location by connecting to shared experiences of oppression with black populations worldwide. I argue that this connection to blackness reflects how France is undergoing a “racial project,” per Omi and Winant’s (1994) formulation.
Discipline
Sociology
Geographic Area
Europe
Sub Area
Ethnography