MESA Banner
From Colonial Subject to Postcolonial Veteran: The "Return Migration" and Postcolonial Integration of the Harkis
Abstract
This paper attends to France's great shame: the native recruits of Algeria or "harkis" who fought for France during the Algerian War of Independence only to be mistreated and concealed from the nation's memory and historical record. Deviating from the conventional stories about their suffering and plight, I examine the French Fifth Republic's comparative treatment of the harkis and other Algerian immigrants who arrived in France after decolonization. I show that France made critical distinctions between the two and that the harkis, over time, became instrumental in the politics of memory and representation of France's colonial past in Algeria. The paper contends with accounts that characterize Algerians in France as a monolithic group and argues that disparate colonial experiences produced widely varied experiences among Algerians in France long after decolonization.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Algeria
Sub Area
Minorities