Interesting and mostly thoughtful piece — certainly refreshing in this landscape. I am a French Moroccan that has reached an officer rank in the French army and joined an administrative corps. After that moved to North America. One aspect of the piece that I dislike is that religion is conflated with what people call “origins”. Religion is a choice (and many French people with Arab names are not particularly practicing), but in continental Europe your “origins” are inescapable and a frequent topic of conversation, as a source of understanding of who you truly are supposed to be. This is a psychological trap: you can either follow the stereotype attached to you — to make it consistent — or spend a good amount of energy trying to disprove people’s perception of your “origins”. The only way out is to have a more inclusive narrative that defines what it is to be French. For instance in my opinion belief in the importance of gender equality and freedom of speech is a non negotiable precondition to be French. The constitution of the Republic enounciates the universality of mankind — if our nation believed a little bit more in its own founding texts it would be all the better.
If Arabs in France make even a small effort to assimilate to their freely chosen new "homeland," they are accepted and recognized as French. Otherwise, not so much.
So the poignant literature is books and not academic papers, trying to state that Maghrebin people feel French even though stating the opposite would be self-defeating for their cause. I am not sure it is very rigorous.
Interesting and mostly thoughtful piece — certainly refreshing in this landscape. I am a French Moroccan that has reached an officer rank in the French army and joined an administrative corps. After that moved to North America. One aspect of the piece that I dislike is that religion is conflated with what people call “origins”. Religion is a choice (and many French people with Arab names are not particularly practicing), but in continental Europe your “origins” are inescapable and a frequent topic of conversation, as a source of understanding of who you truly are supposed to be. This is a psychological trap: you can either follow the stereotype attached to you — to make it consistent — or spend a good amount of energy trying to disprove people’s perception of your “origins”. The only way out is to have a more inclusive narrative that defines what it is to be French. For instance in my opinion belief in the importance of gender equality and freedom of speech is a non negotiable precondition to be French. The constitution of the Republic enounciates the universality of mankind — if our nation believed a little bit more in its own founding texts it would be all the better.
If Arabs in France make even a small effort to assimilate to their freely chosen new "homeland," they are accepted and recognized as French. Otherwise, not so much.
So the poignant literature is books and not academic papers, trying to state that Maghrebin people feel French even though stating the opposite would be self-defeating for their cause. I am not sure it is very rigorous.