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Identités et nouveaux rapports sociaux dans les sociétés pluriethniques

Anne Laperrière

L’intégration de la nouvelle immigration à la société québécoise : facteurs facilitants, difficultés et stratégies. Table ronde

Social stakeholders reviewed the facilitating factors, difficulties and strategies that mark the integration of minorities of the "new wave of non-European immigrants". Notwithstanding diverse views and experience, common problems are observed. The newcomers' first challenge is to redefine their identity and social relationships in a new, much more individualistic context. Among long-established minorities in the country (blacks in particular), the first problem to arise is equal access to resources and power; colour remains a barrier in spite of the attenuation of cultural differences. The identity profile changes from generation to generation since Pan-American models and broader identities (of culture or colour) bring young people of different origins closer together.

Entre communauté et société, le citoyen pluriel. Cambodgiens à Rennes, en Bretagne

Ida Simon-Barouh
The "pluralistic" shift of the 1960s, combined with the economic recession, has raised several types of questions in France. For example, an attempt to take into consideration a certain plurality is noticeable among political authorities. This, however, was offset by the desire of part of the French population to turn inward, to promote assimilation (when deemed possible) and to foster exclusion. Another question concerned identity: what does it mean to be French? And if born of foreign parents, what nationality is one? How do foreign communities define themselves? How do they react to the experience of changing French migration and nationalist policies? The author bases her rationale on the specific example of Cambodians living in Rennes, Britanny.

Attachement utilitaire et refus du jeu ethnique. Le rapport au pays d’accueil dans les récits de vie d’un groupe d’immigrants italo-montréalais

Mauro Peressini
The stories of the lives of a group of Italian immigrants, as they reveal the many identities by which the narrators define themselves, are used to analyse their attitudes toward the host country. Discourse on the natural and spatial characteristics of Canada, on Canadian society in general and on actual relations with native Canadians show that Canada is seen in a positive or negative light depending on whether or not it can promote what is essentially family migration and the development of local community life. Value is placed on family identities, the identity associated with belonging to a community of parents and friends and the identity of "citizen". On the other hand, this discourse generally gives short shrift to ethno-national identities. The conclusion suggests considering utilitarian attachment to the host country and rejection of the ethnic game, both of which emerge from the discourse as strategies related to the socio-professional characteristics of the group under study.

Ethnicité et générations en Amérique du Nord. Le cas de la seconde génération de Juifs sépharades à Montréal

Mikhaël Elbaz
The author suggests rethinking research on the durability of the identity strategies of immigrants and their descendants, as well as the relationship between communal cohesion, the changing patterns of tradition, and class and generational "habitus." He suggests a new look at research on immigrant generations in the United States and holds that genealogical and cultural identities are constructs which exemplify the overwhelming influence of modernity. He notes that any analysis of generational positions has to take into account the importance the ascendants maintain in migratory and transethnic networks, material and cultural resources, economic cycles, the principles of instrumental and symbolic integration into the host country and the ability or inability of immigrants to build a community and organizations representing its cohesiveness. In a case study, he compares the attitudes and identities of first and second-generation Sephardic Jews in Montreal, showing that the heirs act as a third generation in terms of Hansen's theory, Judaize themselves anew and reproduce according to family and ethnic patterns.

La politique d’intégration des immigrés et la fragmentation des identités. Le modèle belge à l’épreuve de la crise économique et de la fédéralisation de l’État

Andrea Rea
In common with other countries of immigration, Belgium is facing the problem of an emergent, multicultural society. The main political question is knowing how to ensure integration while preserving cultural identities, or preventing the defence of identities from resulting in a fragmentation of national identity. The Belgian response to this is determined, at the political level, by the current constitutional crisis, and at the social level by the employment crisis. The relationship between integration and the fragmentation of identities leaves immigrants in a state of exclusion through the difficulties they encounter in acquiring political citizenship and the right to negotiate. Furthermore, the regulatory measures devised are less a reflection of the specific characteristics of migrant populations than of the constitutional problems inherent in the Belgian state.

Intégration et exclusion dans la société duale. Le chômeur et l’immigré

Isabelle Taboada Leonetti
Comparing two metaphoric figures of exclusion, the unemployed person and the immigrant, clarifies the process of integration-exclusion of immigrants and the weaknesses and ambiguities of the concept of integration as it applies to immigration. When French society questions the integration of its immigrants, French takes precedence over society. Conversely, examining the problems of social integration in France in the sense of classical sociology would result in considering immigrant populations as a social group like any other—certain immigrant groups being rather better integrated than some categories of the native born—in a complex, multicultural context.

Élites et leaders ethniques : entre mobilité sociale et structuration communautaire

Marco Martiniello
To assess the post-migratory situation in continental Europe, the author distinguishes between ethnic category and ethnic community, and between ethnic elite and ethnic leader, and then describes the situation and theoretical issues of the study of ethnic elites and leadership in that part of the world. A critique of the most popular version of the thesis of the ethnicization of social relationships is presented, along with a theoretical framework that is both alternative and complementary. The theory highlights the relationships of power and powerlessness formed between the polity of the host society and ethnic communities of immigrant origin, with special attention to the status and roles of ethnic elites and leaders in these unequal relationships. In the third section of the article, the example of the French-speaking Belgian community of Italian origin serves to illustrate the proposed theory.

Le métissage pris dans les filets du Politique. De quelques paradoxes de la philosophie politique au passage des frontières des États-nations

Marie-Claire Caloz-Tschopp
In the current context of mobile populations, in particular south-north mobility, the debate on interbreeding is replaced in some circles by a debate on the "chances and risks" of the multicultural society and the "clash of civilizations". After race, "culture" is the reference point in differentiating human beings. How does political philosophy approach this debate? The tension between diversity and unity in the human species was evident as early as Kant. While acknowledging the artificial, and non-biological, character of nations, Kant nonetheless rejected the role of mixed origins in the make-up of peoples. Arendt tried to restore a role to stateless persons without rights by defining power not in relation to territory but in terms of common action, thereby contributing to the development of a political philosophy that goes beyond national boundaries and frees interbreeding from the tangles of politics.

Et si l’on parlait des Français ? Perception des immigrés en France, attitudes, opinions et comportements

Véronique De Rudder, Isabelle Taboada Leonetti and François Vourc'h
A survey of 145 French nationals living in the Ile de France region was conducted with a view to identifying the perceptions, opinions and attitudes of the French regarding immigrants compared with their own social behaviour and cultural habits. Using variable but non-random combinations, five attitude-types were identified that linked positions regarding immigration and immigrants with personal behaviour (sociability, commitment, orientation). Analysis of the internal coherence of attitudes revealed two major factors of tension. The first comes from a certain contradiction between the national and social dimensions, (i.e., civil exclusion and social egalitarianism coexist). The second concerns the limits of pluralism deemed acceptable, depending on whether freedom of expression and cultural autonomy are favoured, or a degree of ideological-cultural homogeneity is sought based on common values. These different concepts of French society, of its own integration and future, are illustrated through these positions, while identity tensions are expressed in terms of how one can today or in the future, "be French."

Intermédiaire culturel et médiateur de cultures : évolution des rôles et des attitudes dans la société québécoise

Lucille Guilbert
Two specific dimensions of intercultural relations are described: 1. relations between nationals of the host society and individual immigrants observed in situations of twinning, sponsorships, host family or international adoption, and 2. the ability to mediate among immigrants and Quebecers of all backgrounds. The concepts of cultural intermediate and mediator of cultures are used to examine these two dimensions. The roles of cultural intermediary and mediator of cultures are both necessary to society and evolve at the same time as society. Since every society has its hierarchy and strata, the cultural intermediary help to ensure its smooth operation. Because individuals have a better understanding of individual and group perceptions of their culture of origin, life plan, expectations and motivations, all of which mark their relations with others, and since they are more aware of the "screens" and "filters" through which knowledge of others is acquired, they are well suited to becoming "cultural mediators," whether they are of native stock or immigrants.

L’école et l’interculturel, intégration des autres ou prise de conscience de soi ?

Albert Doutreloux
The article is based on action-research and practical training experience in intercultural relations in Montreal schools. What seemed to emerge was that ignorance of our own cultural resolution is more harmful than ignorance of other cultures, and that the intercultural context provides an opportunity to become aware of these cultural processes and to adjust our performance and methods of action. It enables us to grasp the "content-process-context" dynamics to deal with the complexity of real situations and establish relationships between autonomous systems, whether individuals or institutions.

L’émergence d’une nouvelle génération cosmopolite ?

Anne Laperrière, Lejacques Compère, Majid D'Khissy, René Dolce, Gilbert Filion, Nicole Fleurant and Marianick Vendette
Based on qualitative research using interviews with 89 young French, Italian and Haitian Quebecers in a cosmopolitan high school in Montreal, the authors try to determine how the outlooks and strategies of young people are constructed as regards interethnic relations in three specific areas: the family, the neighbourhood and the school. Elements which favour the exchange of views and obstacles to such exchanges are highlighted: the primacy of individual characteristics over those of the group, the relative nature of cultures, recognition of the need for compromise and reciprocity in exchanging views which favour rapprochement and combat friction due to linguistic, racial or value differences. Young people in general arrive at a common definition of the basic principles for pluralistic, smooth operation by the end of high school, starting from different life experiences conditioned by the values transmitted by families in various ethnic groups.

Marie-Agnès Barrère-Maurisson, La Division familiale du travail. La vie en double, Paris, PUF, Économie en liberté, 1992, 251 p. / Jacques Commaille, Les Stratégies des femmes. Travail, famille et politique, Paris, Éd. La Découverte, 1992, 189 p.

Agnès Pitrou

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