A French Dilemma

Jocelyne Streiff-Fénart (1)

1 URMIS - Unite de recherche migrations et sociétés

This paper explores the gap that exists between the principles put forward by the French republican model and actual discriminations against citizens of foreign origin in French society. It suggests that anti-discrimination policies implemented to overcome this contradiction have produced what could be characterized, in the words of G. Myrdal, as a "French dilemma". Paradoxically the strong emphasis put on racial and ethnic categories has resulted in a move away from the norm of color-blind policy making inherent in the republican creed. This process of ethnicization has given rise to virulent public controversy, with a particular focus on the issue of ethnic statistics. The lift of the longstanding social taboo on ethnic and racial denominations has also fostered a range of identity claims by ethnic minority organizations. In particular, this paper examines identity claims by two ethnic minority organizations (the French Representative Council of Black Associations or CRAN, and the Natives of the Republic Movement, or MIR), by means of a Barthian "Us" and "Them" dichotomy. It shows how they tend to reproduce and make publicly visible the division between two types of minorities (Blacks and Muslims) with which French society has not established the same boundaries.

Mots clés: discrimination; minorities; ethnicity

Domaines: Sociologie

Jocelyne Streiff-Fénart. A French Dilemma. Comparative European Politics, 2012, 10 (3), pp.283-300. ⟨halshs-00961732⟩