Streiff-Fénart Jocelyne. (2012). A French dilemma : anti-discrimination policies and minority claims in contemporary France. Comparative European Politics, 10 (3), p. 283-300. ISSN 1472-4790.
Titre du document
A French dilemma : anti-discrimination policies and minority claims in contemporary France
Comparative European Politics, 2012,
10 (3), p. 283-300 ISSN 1472-4790
This article explores the gap between the principled notion of a French republican model and actual discriminations against minority group members in French society. It suggests that anti-discrimination policies implemented to overcome this contradiction have produced what could be characterized, following Myrdal, as a 'French dilemma'. Anti-discrimination as a new public agenda has paralleled a process of ethnicization, giving rise to virulent public controversy, with a particular focus on the issue of ethnic statistics. This has also fostered a range of identity claims by ethnic minority organizations. In particular, this article examines identity claims by two ethnic minority organizations (the French Representative Council of Black Associations or CRAN, and the Natives of the Republic Movement or MIR), through a Barthian 'Us' and 'Them' dichotomy. It shows how the CRAN and the MIR tend to reproduce and make publicly visible the division between two types of minorities (Blacks and Muslims) with which French society has not established the same boundaries. Comparative European Polities (2012) 10, 283-300. doi:10.1057/cep.2012.14
