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7. What Identity/Identities?
- Temple University Press
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CHAPTER 7 What Identity/Identities? T HE THEME of communautarisme is extremely prevalent in today’s public debate. The “communautaire phenomenon” is one of the qualities of the “segmented societies” that are so well known in sociology. In Le ghetto français (2004), Éric Maurin characterizes French society as a type of segmented society. He emphasizes the strong spatial concentration of social groups. In fact, the social composition of places of residence is very homogeneous. Different social categories are juxtaposed by territory. The concentration of immigrants or poorer populations in specific neighborhoods is not a unique phenomenon, but rather just one of the illustrations of a larger phenomenon that also concerns the middle class and the wealthy. The significant spatial concentration of the New French, proven in fact, is one of the conditions for communautarisme. Nevertheless, communautarisme also implies a sense of identity, of belonging to a group that is subnational or supernational and that defies a sense of national belonging. Furthermore, it assumes that the identity question is at the base of communautaire claims. To evaluate communautarisme, then, we need to respond to several questions: what is the relationship of the New French to their familial country of origin? Do they have a special relationship with the French in general? Do the New French consider themselves a group? And if so, on what basis? It is extremely difficult to study this subject, not just from a theoretical point of view but also from an empirical one. The interview 100 ■ Chapter 7 must not falsely create the phenomenon or artificially prevent it from appearing. Therefore, to do this, on the one hand we did not explicitly mention during the interview that the New French were the population under study. And on the other hand, before asking any question regarding identity, we asked the series of questions on one’s closeness to, or identification with, various groups in order to understand the diversity of identities and to try to compare them. If identity is understood as a feeling of belonging, it is sensible to consider that the less an individual describes himself or herself as close to a group, the less he or she feels like a member of this group. If there is communautarisme among the New French, their identification with various groups must be different according to the groups, but also different from those of the control group. In sum, if the New French are characterized , overall, by communautariste thinking, this should be visible in the analysis of self-identification. In addition to this approach, we wished to get at the question about identities via a second route: linked fate. Did interviewees feel that their individual destiny was tied to that of the black and Maghrebin minority in France? These questions allowed us to study relationships to the family’s country of origin, identification with the French in general, and the question of racism and its effects, so we could draw conclusions on the existence and scope of any communautarisme in France. Attachment to Country of Origin Among the New French, a large percentage of respondents (77 percent ) claimed to be very or rather close to their family’s “country of origin” or its inhabitants. The persistence of an attachment to a country of origin is clear. What does this identification with, or “closeness to,” a country of origin depend on? The religious factor seems to play an important role. In fact, those who are not religious are those who claim to be the least close—in number and in intensity—to the country of origin of their family. On the other extreme, Muslims, notably those who practice the most, are very or rather close to the country of origin of their family more often than the others (88 percent, compared with to 62 per- What Identity/Identities? ■ 101 cent for the non-Muslims); half the Muslims claim to be very close. The other religions are in an intermediate position between those who are not religious and Muslims. Thus, religions, in structuring specific social networks, probably contribute to the maintenance of stronger emotional ties with the country of origin. The world context of the polarization on self-claimed Muslim terrorism and the discourse about the “clash of civilizations” can also have an impact on the attachment of French Muslims to their country of origin. The difficulties of insertion into French society for the New French and the attitudes toward Islam in this context are also plausible explanations for why...