Assimilation and Struggle:
Maghrebi Immigration and French Political Culture

Catherine Wihtol de Wenden

The story of the French state's relationship with North African immigration is both turbulent and complex. Migration from France's former colonies in the Maghreb into the French metropole has affected myriad aspects of the French political calculus, from the two world wars, the internal conflicts of the working class, and the mobilization in the French homeland for Algerian independence to integration policies and Islam in France. Moreover, these flows of North African peoples have played a crucial role in the framing of public policy and in the socialization of immigrant cultures in France.

Yet, North African (Maghrebi) immigrants form neither a homogeneous political group, nor an isomorphic cultural community. Indeed, the North African immigrant community continues to diversify with newcomers, elites, middle classes, and refugees from the Maghreb, as the second and third generations acquire French citizenship and, occasionally, break their links with their countries of origin. While a section of Maghrebis maintains invisibility in the social and political sphere, others fight for recognition. Most now play an ambiguous part, mixing traditional French republican values with Muslim community belongings…

Catherine Wihtol de Wenden is Professor at the Center for International Studies and Research, Sciences Po, Paris.