The Politics of Identity and Migration: Maghrebi Migrants' Political Discourse in colonial and postcolonial France

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It has often been argued that post-colonial immigration in France has posed new challenges to the so-called French Republican model of integration. Indeed, French popular, and to a large extent political and media, discourses have presented post-colonial migrants (especially Maghrebis) and their children as constituting a population which is more difficult to integrate than previous, mainly European, migrants. At the core of this widely held belief lies the idea that Maghrebi immigration is a relatively recent phenomenon and problem, and that their cultural, religious traditions and social practices (which are often described in vague and reifying terms) are irreconcilably 'different' from those of the French, thereby ignoring the long and complex historical links that have tied France to North Africa since the colonial era. Equally, the lack of political representation of Maghrebis in France today is not so much attributed to the discrimination to which North Africans are subjected as to their lack of political tradition.This study aims to challenge these two widely held beliefs by exploring how the ethno-national identity and discourses of North African immigrants in France were shaped in the colonial and post-colonial periods and marked by French Universalist and political values. It also assesses some of the key characteristics of French discourses on, and prejudice towards, the Muslim colonial 'subjects' and post-colonial migrants from North Africa and how it informed Maghrebis' political activism in France. It examines the ways in which the nationalist party born in the North African diaspora mobilised and developed anticolonial and nationalist discourses from the 1920s to Algerian independence.It then compares and contrasts this with Maghreb\ migrants' political activism and discourse in the post-colonial period with a particular focus on the 1970s. During that decade, the radical organization, the Movement des Travailleurs Arabes (MTA), drew its inspiration from the anticolonial struggle of its forebears, fought for immigrants' rights and against what it saw as a post-colonial period marked by neo-colonialism, racism and failed independent states in North Africa. Activists from the MTA later played an important role in the antiracist marches of the 1980s and the mobilization of so-called'Second Generation' North Africans in France.This study assesses whether Maghrebi immigrants, whose presence in France goes back to the early twentieth century, were able to develop a consistent and original political tradition and voice. Both movements' discourses and actions are analysed through a large corpus of archival documents on, and secondary sources pertaining to, anticolonial political organisations led by Messali Hadj (the ENA, the PPA, the MTLD and the MNA) and to the MTA. The primary documents which are examined in detail include newspapers, tracts, reports from militants, personal correspondence, minutes of meetings, posters, as well as police and government reports. This study examines the importance of ethnicity in the framing of national identity. However, their sense of identity was informed by different markers and shaped their political agenda in different ways. On the one hand, the Messalist organisations promoted an ethnic identity marked by a nationalist discourse that was rooted in history and religion. It aimed to challenge France's oppressive colonial rule, and establish a modern nation-state within the confines of the colonial territory. On the other hand, the MTA's sense of ethno-national identity was informed by North Africans' anti-colonial struggle, by the Palestinian Revolution and by a strong sense of class belonging. Its nationalism encompassed the Arab World and transcended the boundaries of nation-states which, it argued, had failed to defeat imperialism and its corollary, racism.