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National identity politics in France have taken an interesting turn since the 1980s, a period accentuated by social movements led by youth of immigration who self-asserted in terms of ethnonational origins. Now, French-born or -raised youth, stigmatized by those origins, self-identify as French, although they are not so perceived in French society. Drawing on a multiyear ethnographic study of African-origin Muslim girls, this article explores how social structures, in particular national education, simultaneously assimilate and exclude these youth. This study provides insights into the mechanisms of cultural transmission and racialization through statist institutions. [assimilation, French education, "race," identity politics, Muslims girls]
My life is so complicated.... You know, for an African, Prance is a land of dreams. Everyone dreams of coming here, but they don't know what it is.-Anita (of Ivorian origin)
. .. [W]e are French and Muslim and proud of it.-Muslim protester condemning the ban on headscarves
I come from two cultures, one from my country of birth, France, and the other from my country of origin, Morocco . . . when I go to school, I act like French girls. ... At home . . . I'm both French and Muslim.-Le'ila (of Moroccan origin)
Individuals or groups are objectively defined not only by what they are but by what they are reputed to be, a "being perceived" which, even if it closely depends on their being, is never totally reducible to this. [Bourdieu 1990:135]
Prior to the 1990s, youth of immigration in France spearheaded differentialist movements that focused on the right to cultural difference (la droit à la différence). In his analysis of post-1990s public discourse, sociologist Rogers Brubaker (2001:531, 542) observes a "return of assimilation" in France, ignited by the president of the extreme right party (the National Front), Jean-Marie Le Pen.1 Brubaker cautions that this return refers not to a normative "arrogant assimilationism," understood as the elimination of nondominant groups' cultures (i.e., assimilation as making similar to the dominant group), but rather to a more nuanced understanding-becoming similar to the dominant group-in which the thrust is on the process of social incorporation. Following this model, adaptation occurs not to a core culture or mainstream, but rather to multiple reception contexts in a society-that is, to sectors other than a...