First paragraph: Fashioning themselves in the same vein as the gilets jaunes, France’s populist economic justice movement, the gilets noirs activists are highlighting the latest chapter in the country’s ongoing debate around immigration.https://theconversation.com/french-citizenship-campaigners-may-find-acceptance-depends-on-far-more-than-official-papers-12473

Barclay, Fiona

English

First paragraph: Fashioning themselves in the same vein as the gilets jaunes, France’s populist economic justice movement, the gilets noirs activists are highlighting the latest chapter in the country’s ongoing debate around immigration

Stirling Online Research Repository (RIOXX)

AuthorFiona BarclaySenior Lecturer, French, University ofStirlingAcademic rigour, journalistic flairFrench citizenship campaigners may find acceptance dependson far more than official papersOctober 10, 2019 3.17pm BSTFashioning themselves in the same vein as the gilets jaunes, France’s populist economic justicemovement, the gilets noirs activists are highlighting the latest chapter in the country’s ongoing debatearound immigration.A collective of undocumented migrants protesting injustices against their number, the gilet noirs havestaged three high-profile occupations this year. The most recent took place at the Panthéon – theresting place of many distinguished French citizens – where protesters railed against big businessexploiting undocumented migrants and demanded the legal right to residency in France.While their demands for identity papers and housing for all have been met with support from French intellectuals and artists, on social media the responses have been less enthusiastic.At first glance, the absence of hospitality and, in cases, outright hostility towards the immigrants,stems from the fact that they fail to meet the criteria for French citizenship.Liberté, egalité, fraternité: Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People – the female symbol of theFrench republic, and one of its three founding principles. The Louvre/WikipediaCitizenship is the nation’s membership card. For many, to be born with it is to be French. To becomeeligible only at a certain point (such as children born in France to foreign parents, who becomeFrench citizens at 18), is considered to be less than a full citizen of the nation. This deference to legalstatus is at the heart of the policies of “Fortress Europe” – the hostile environment created bygovernments across the continent that leads to the “othering” of migrants and refugees.But France’s history tells us that this fetishisation of citizenship is a red herring. It serves to distractfrom the reality that identity papers are not always sufficient for social acceptance. Skin colour,ethnicity, linguistic skill and accent all play into expectations of what a French citizen should be.These expectations are inconsistent and often more imagined than legal.France and colonial AlgeriaNearly 60 years ago in the summer of 1962, the French press was filled with similar expressions ofhostility directed towards the French settler population returning to France in the wake of the Algerian war of independence.Europeans had settled in Algeria shortly after the French conquest in 1830. Algeria soon made up thelargest settler colony in the French empire, and was incorporated as an integral part of the Frenchnational territory in 1848. When the Algerian War broke out in 1954, French settlers in Algerianumbered around one million, making up 10% of the population.Initially, the French public largely supported the efforts to keep Algeria French, but as the conflictdragged on, enthusiasm waned. When Charles de Gaulle came to power in 1958 and then introducedhis policy of self-determination for Algerians, the sheer numbers of the Muslim population meant thatthe outcome was only a matter of time.The closing months of the war saw the situation worsen for the settlers. After the signing of the Evian Accords marked the official end of the war with a ceasefire on March 19, 1962, the pro-colonial Secret'Gilets Noirs' protesters occupy Pantheon in Paris over migrant r…Army Organisation (OAS), launched a new campaign of violence aimed at destabilising the movestowards peace.The OAS’s targets were disparate: the French army, the Algerian nationalists, and any settlerssuspected of supporting independence. As civilian kidnappings and deaths increased, many of thesettlers quietly began to quietly pack and board ships bound for France. The trickle quickly became aflood: by independence in July 1962, around 700,000 settlers had made the journey to France, mostsetting foot on the mainland for the first time.Almost the entire French settler population would abandon Algeria. These settlers, referred to afterindependence as “pieds-noirs” – black feet – held French citizenship and had full rights to live inFrance. But despite being of white European origin, they were met with hostility and resentment fromthe residents of mainland France. Many regarded the settlers as foreign.Some, foreshadowing the so-called migrant crisis of Syrian refugees in the last decade, feared that theflood of arrivals concealed fleeing OAS terrorists and regarded all pieds-noirs as suspect.Many on the left, including the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, saw them as imperialists who embodied the system of colonial privilege and oppression of the natives. And others held them responsible forthe deaths of thousands of young French conscripts who had been sent to fight in Algeria. Opinionpolls conducted in 1962 show that the majority of the French felt no obligation towards the settlers,despite their shared nationality.Arriving en masse with few possessions, exhausted and overwhelmed, the repatriates had theappearance of bedraggled refugees as they queued to seek modest benefits, accommodation and jobs.The hostile treatment they experienced has made its way into pied-noir folklore: landlords refusing torent to repatriates; taxi-drivers imposing exorbitant fares; Communist dockworkers dropping cratesof belongings into the docks at Marseilles; widespread bullying of repatriate children. Citizenship🇫🇷 🇩🇿 Veterans: The French in Algeria | Featured DocumentaryCitizenship France French immigrationgranted them the right to live in France, but it was no protection against the discrimination andbullying endured by many.Citizenship and acceptanceFrom one perspective, the integration of the pieds-noirs was a success story. Their arrival coincidedwith the economic boom of the “Trente Glorieuses” – the 30-year period of post-war economic growthwhich transformed the everyday lives of French people – and within a decade most were assimilatedinto French society.Yet these repatriates were slow to forget the hostile atmosphere which greeted them in 1962. Theygained a reputation for colonial nostalgia and a tendency to vote for the far right FrontNational/Rassemblement National, which supported the cause of French Algeria.Their experience reminds us that citizenship is neither a guarantee of acceptance, nor a defenceagainst the lasting traumas of exile. If the gilets noirs are successful in their demands for Frenchidentity papers, they may find that their struggle for acceptance continues.You might also likeThe unofficial flag of the ‘pieds noirs’. WikipediaMacron’s France presents new immigration bill as a centrist compromise – it’s nothing ofthe sortThe long, troubled history of assimilation in France‘I understood you!’: May 1958, the return of De Gaulle and the fall of France’sFourth RepublicMigrants: when Europeans once flocked to North African shores

French citizenship campaigners may find acceptance depends on far more than official papers

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http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/30435/1/Barclay-Conversation-2019.pdf

French citizenship campaigners may find acceptance depends on far more than official papers

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