Growing Up French? Upward Mobility, Social Marginalization, and the North African Second-Generation in France

• In Event: 299 - Section on Inequality, Poverty and Mobility Paper Session. Mobility in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Based on fieldwork and interviews with middle-class second-generation North African immigrants in France, I discuss their trajectories of upward-mobility and their experiences being middle-class and upwardly mobile, yet also marginalized. I situate growing up French as a question as respondents relay how their “Frenchness”, or place within mainstream French society, was questioned starting at an early age. I interrogate the messages children of North African immigrants received from their parents about being French and being of Maghrébin origin, and trace the influence of these messages on the upward mobility of these second-generation individuals. These findings therefore shed light on the complicated processes of integration of immigrant-origin individuals in France and other societies.

Author

• Jean Beaman, Purdue University