BECOMING FRENCH: EXPLORING THE STORIES OF AN ALGERIAN IMMIGRANT STUDENT’S EXPERIENCES IN FRANCE

Abstract

In France, dominant discourse officially rejects multiculturalism and frames adherence to laïcité (French secularism) as a question of national identity (Bertossi, 2012, p. 251). This has created a harsh environment for an immigrant woman wearing a head veil in public. This study used narrative inquiry to examine how Imane, a 17-year-old Muslim Algerian immigrant to France used her transnationality and cultural flexibility to construct her identities, present them to those around her, and position herself in relation to them. The research is informed by the perspective that Imane, as an immigrant student, has transnational literacies that are the result of maintaining ties with Algeria while living in France and regularly moving between multiple cultures and languages. She lives in an emerging social context and has constructed multiple, contextualized identities connected to her membership in more than one culture and social group (Yi, 2009, pp. 101-102).

The data for this study are the talk and small stories that have been extracted from audiorecorded group discussions and tutoring sessions, personal interviews, and student work that were collected from Imane during her participation in an English study group. Using a five-step small story narrative analysis procedure, this project explores how Imane makes sense of her life, navigates her multiple, intersectional identities, and positions herself in relation to the world and society’s discourses (Alexander, 2016, p. 8).

Findings suggest that Imane seemed to be highly concerned about both her personal experiences and current events that were related to publicly wearing a veil in France. She often interpreted her negative experiences as an outward expression of current French discourse which frequently links Muslim immigrants with terrorism. While Imane’s choices about wearing her veil impacted her educational experiences and her relationships with her teachers, her transnationality helped her to re-define French cultural values and her understanding of what it means to be French. It also seemed to give her a point of reference for examining what she was being taught in, empowering her to form her own opinions, and enabling her to take critical stance and create a counter-narrative to the public immigrant narrative in France.