Negotiations on `culture' in immigrant families
Résumé
In this paper, we present the results of a research focused on relations between members of North African immigrant families in France. At first, they can be caracterised by a strong opposition between two categories of persons : those of the "first generation" who have been socialised in their country and those of the "second generation", born and educated in the host country. The misunderstandings between theese two categories of actors are therefore generally imputed to the difference of "culture" and to the conflict between "tradition" and "modernity".
The results of the research shows that this opposition between an Arabic, traditional culture and a French, modern one, is in fact a common interpretative resource, used by both parents and children to give significance to the experience of family migration. The description of familial events, such as mariages, enables us to see how tensions between modern and traditional cultural models, instead of being an obstacle to the communication between the two generations, is the very base of identity negociations that take place in daily family life.
The results of the research shows that this opposition between an Arabic, traditional culture and a French, modern one, is in fact a common interpretative resource, used by both parents and children to give significance to the experience of family migration. The description of familial events, such as mariages, enables us to see how tensions between modern and traditional cultural models, instead of being an obstacle to the communication between the two generations, is the very base of identity negociations that take place in daily family life.
Les relations intergénérationnelles dans les familles immigrées sont interprétées le plus souvent à partir du constat de l'incompréhension entre deux types d'acteurs (ceux appartenant à la première et à la deuxième générations de l'immigration) qui s'opposent selon l'axe tradition/modernité. On présentera dans cette communication les résultats d'une recherche sur les familles maghrébines en France qui montrent que si l'opposition entre une culture arabo-islamique "traditionnelle" et une culture française "moderne" structure en effet toute la vie familiale des immigrés maghrébins en France, c'est en tant que ressource interprétative commune utilisée par les acteurs pour donner du sens à l'expérience de la migration familiale. On montrera à partir de descriptions d'épisodes de la vie familiale concernant notamment les mariages, comment la tension entre des modèles culturels modernes et traditionnels, loin d'être un obstacle à la communication intergénérationnelle est le fondement même des négociations d'identité qui se jouent quotidiennement dans l'espace familial.