L'accueil des enfants (d') immigrés dans les écoles françaises

Abstract
Immigrant(s') children are the purveyors of a family tongue and culture which differ from that
of the host country and its education system, when in fact, family culture and the mothertongue
play a major role in harmonious child development and in his/her integration into
society.
School, which should aim at both enabling the child to establish himself/herself as a subject
and finding his/her place in society, conveys a different culture, which is regarded as
legitimate.
What about the tongues and cultures of immigrant children?
Until the 1970s, nothing specific was schemed for immigrant school children. They had to
merge with the rest. Family reunification policies brought along the taking into account of
these children.
Two systems were introduced : childcare facilities for non-francophone children and courses
in the culture and language of their country of origin.
Yet, if such policies have been a first step towards the taking into account of immigrant
children within education systems, they've remained within a pattern of simultaneous
assimilation and differentiation.
Beyond what these policies intended, the observations made in the « reception and
integration » classes and language and cultural courses of Côte-d'Or, along with the interviews
and surveys carried out with the teachers of the county, have pointed out different practical
and human problems in their very functioning.
Moreover, the schooling years play an important part in the building up of children and what
is taught will leave its mark for long. Thus, the importance given to overseas cultures as well
as the image of the other conveyed during that time, particularly through books, constitute the
mirror of the way to see the other in the host society on the one hand, and will bear long-time
consequences on tomorrow's society on the other hand. The western ethnocentrism which
characterizes the teaching of History and Literature leads to the stigmatization of the Other,
through the tongues and cultures transmitted to students.
Keywords :
otherness ; discrimination ; diversity ; education ; self-development ; foreign ; intercultural ;
migration ; multiculturalism ;assimilation/integration policies ; school enrolment ;
socialization ; classe d'accueil (CLA) ; classe d'initiation (CLIN) [reception and integration
classes] ; immigrant(s') children ; language and culture of the country of origin teaching
(ELCO) ; ethnocentrism ; importance of the mother tongue and culture ; school books ;
western ethnocentrism
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