Hargreaves, "Perceptions of Ethnic Difference in Post-War France"

Ethnic Difference in Post-War France 15
While working at one level of the popular imagination to narrow the
category of immigrants by removing Europeans from the frame, color also
works in the opposite direction by adding large numbers of non-immigrants to
those who are perceived as immigrants. Born in the country where their parents
or grandparents settled, the descendants of post-colonial migrants are not themselves
immigrants, but they are often perceived as such by the majority ethnic
population. Even when majority ethnic observers know that they are looking at
people born in France, they sometimes remain trapped within mindsets that
equate colored skins with immigrant status and less than full legitimacy within
French society.
These perceptual problems may be illustrated by quoting from a bibliography
of early publications dealing with second-generation members of the
new immigrant minorities which were beginning to emerge in France during the
late 1970s. Writing in 1980, Marie-Claude Munoz listed the following terms as
those most commonly employed to designate this new generation: "Young migrants,
young migrant workers, young immigrants, foreign youths, young emigrants,
foreign immigrant youths, immigrant youths, youths of Maghrebi origin,
young Algerians in France, sons of migrants, second-generation migrants,
second-generation immigrants, second-generationewcomers, 'illegitimate children'
" (7).'' Practically all the terms quoted here were quite inappropriate, for
most of the young people they were meant to describe were neither migrants nor
workers, but the children of immigrant workers. Although some had been
brought to France by their parents during childhood or adolescence, most wsre
born there. By no means all of them were foreigners, and a large proportion
would automatically receive French citizenship on reaching the age of majority
if they had not already received it at birth. The final expression listed by Munoz
reveals some of the unspoken assumptions behind many of the others: this new
generation was seen as "illegitimate" because it cut across the expectations customarily
associated with migrants, especially those of Third World origin. Instead
of a temporary labor force free of family attachments in France, here was a
new generation betokening the pennanent settlement of post-colonial minorities.
The gendered stereotyping implicit in Munoz's list and in the title of her bibtiography
should also be noted. The stereotypical image of migrants as male
workers is reflected in the references to "sons" of migrants. There is no reference
to female members of the new generation, nor for that matter to female migrants,
as if the children of immigrants could only be conceived of as an extension
of the male labor force.
During the early 1980s, a new designation for second-generation
Maghrebis entered circulation: Beurs. This term had originally been adopted by
young Maghrebis in the banlieues of Paris who were tired of the pejorative connotations
attached to majority ethnic usage of the word Arabe. A verlan (backslang)
expression formed by inverting and partially truncating the syllables of
the word Arabe, Beur initially functioned as a valorizing self-designation not
understood by the rest of the population. By the late 1980s, however, it had
become widely used by the mass media, principally in contexts highlighting
problems associated with stereotypical ideas of "immigration" and the banlieues.
The negative stereotypes attached in this way to the Beur label led to its
rejection by most of those to whom it was applied. In a l99l interview, Ben
Jelloun indicated that he would never call his daughter a Beur despite the fact