When “from Elsewhere” and “from Here” Clash, Come to Terms with Each Other, and Combine
Type de matériel :
6
This paper examines the forms and contents of identification among North African immigrants in a French neighborhood. It studies these aspects where people live in houses; these “calm” places hidden by the “projects” and the problems with which these immigrant neighborhoods are identified. This paper hypothesizes that this identification is the product of a specific history—each stage of it being new—in which cultural codes “from here” and “from there” clash, come to terms with each other, and combine. This paper is based on biographical interviews with a young woman employed as a social worker in the community center of the adjacent poorer neighborhood in which she lived for several years. It also uses several open interviews with residents from both places and with employees working in the poorer area, as well as direct observation of a group of young boys who regularly visit the community center and its surroundings. This paper demonstrates that residents’ identification with “here” joins with “there” through different practices depending on various social components: acting “as if” and “unobtrusively” in order to avoid conflict within the family, flamboyantly dressing in well-known brand names when in public to avoid feeling disqualified, and feeling less so in one’s closest surroundings if one shows more discretion. This paper concludes that identification is continuously constructed, making it possible to be “from here” without totally rejecting one’s element from “elsewhere.”
Réseaux sociaux