Trevor responded that there was no harm in celebrating the African-ness of the victory while being French citizens. He deplored that France does not grant duality or a hyphenated nature of citizenship like the USA, where it is possible to call oneself African-American or Asian-American or Italian-American, and so on.<\/p>\n The comedian goes on to say that, when Africans are unemployed or commit crimes on the territory of France, they are treated as illegal migrants deserving to be thrown out because they constitute a threat to the French nation, especially in the wake of the emergence of the extreme-right French political party \u2018Front National\u2019<\/em>, known for its staunch anti-immigration stance, but when the African man scores a goal or climbs up a high-rise building to rescue a baby, as happened a month ago in France, he is treated as French.<\/p>\n The British newspaper The Independent <\/em>carried the following headline on 11 July 2018 after the victory of the French multi-racial team: \u201cIt is no coincidence that, 20 years on from France\u2019s 1998 World Cup win, ethnic minorities still have very little chance of advancing in a rigidly exclusive country.\u201d<\/em> As if by coincidence, this time in Germany, we learned that Arsenal star Mesut Ozil announced his retirement from international soccer citing \u2018racism\u2019 as the motivating factor behind his decision. He said he no longer wanted to wear the German national team shirt because of unfair discrimination, arguing that he is treated as a German when he wins, but as a Turkish migrant when he loses.<\/p>\n This debate about the relationship between the migrants and French identity politics is of significant interest to us Mauritians who have inherited, due to our French and British colonial past, and our Asian and African heritage, conflicting models of integration which, even after 50 years of independence, makes us ask ourselves what it means to be \u2018Mauritian\u2019<\/em> and what constitutes the \u2018Mauritian character\u2019. <\/em><\/p>\n Multiculturalism and assimilation<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Indeed, virtually the entire Anglo-Saxon world consisting of Britain, Canada, Australia and the USA, on the one hand, and France, on the other hand, have adopted two different integration models, namely \u2018multiculturalism\u2019 and \u2018assimilation\u2019 to integrate their immigrants. The USA is often regarded as a \u2018melting pot\u2019, but scientific literature is not very clear as to whether it should be called a \u2018melting pot\u2019 or a \u2018salad bowl\u2019, especially in the days of Trump and strong anti-immigrant sentiments.<\/p>\n These two big models of integration have distinctive characteristics to integrate immigrants. There is a general claim that multiculturalism as a model is the best for integrating immigrants in terms of actual integration; however, multiculturalism as an ideology has come under severe attack (read UK author and political commentator Douglas Murray\u2019s 2017 book entitled \u2018The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam\u2019<\/em>) on the grounds that it has encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, and is responsible for radicalization in the West , leading to extremist ideology and terrorism.<\/p>\n Some argue that the opposite, that is the French assimilationist model, is better, but this model has also been a failure as France has been the target of so many terrorist attacks, and is less effective in promoting social and economic integration.<\/p>\n The French Republic was founded after the revolution as a modern nation-state, universalist and egalitarian, viewed as both a physical territory and collective consciousness in which its citizens share the same rights and privileges. This equality was inherent to all \u201csans distinction d\u2019origine, de race et de religion<\/em>\u201d. The political foundations of the French Republic clearly express France\u2019s tradition and desire for the assimilation of immigrants and ethnic minorities into the image of the French citizen. Thus, the French integration policy is mainly assimilationist; the model requires immigrants to give up their collective linguistic, religious, and cultural traits for citizenship, through which they gain equal treatment.<\/p>\n In fact, in France the term \u2018ethnicit\u00e9\u2019 <\/em>goes against the ideology of the Republic as \u2018one and indivisible\u2019<\/em> because it refers to communities other than the national community, over and against the state. It is therefore rejected. Reinforcing this belief, state immigration policies do not recognise ethnocultural communities. In Britain, on the other hand, immigrants are commonly identified with the word \u2018ethnic minorities\u2019 while in France they are known much as \u2018immigrant\u2019.<\/p>\n British policy makers accept \u2018race\u2019 and \u2018ethnicity\u2019 and they have developed \u2018race relations\u2019 approach while their French counterparts refuse to categorize \u2018race\u2019 and \u2018ethnicity\u2019 and focus much more on antiracism. As theoretical model, Britain has developed \u2018multiculturalism\u2019 to integrate its immigrants and recognize immigrants\u2019 cultural, religious and social differences from British people. On the other hand, France believes in assimilating immigrants into its society. France does not even want to give verbal recognition of ethnic identity out of fear that the use of such terms (ethnicity) might encourage the entrenchment of ethnic differentiation within French society. Therefore, policy divergence of these two countries differs significantly.<\/p>\n Today one in five people in France are estimated to be of immigrant origin. Yet despite this amount of ethnic diversity, France sees itself and desires to be a monocultural society. Immigrants most desire a bicultural identity, in which they retain some elements of their ethno-cultural identity while adopting some values of French society. The construction of a bicultural identity presents a challenge to France due to the particular philosophical foundations of the French nation-state and French culture. Given the recent increases in global people flows, a growing number of people are being exposed to second cultures, increasing the potential for cultural conflict (the ban on the Islamic headscarf, for example).<\/p>\n Denial of identity<\/strong><\/p>\n While Mauritius has adopted a multicultural ideology and cultural pluralism as its policy and we have adopted along the way such appellations as \u201cHindi-speaking\u201d, \u201cUrdu-speaking\u201d, \u201cTamil-speaking\u201d, \u201cTelegu-speaking\u201d, \u201cMarathi-speaking\u201d, \u201cMandarin-speaking\u201d and recognise the speaking unions of different linguistic and ethnic groups, the \u2018assimilationist\u2019 strategy in the French usage denotes an \u201cabsorption radicale\u2026 l\u2019identit\u00e9 d\u2019origine disparait totalement\u2026 sans r\u00e9serve et sans retour<\/em>.\u201d It also conveys a sense of total \u201crenoncement\u201d<\/em> of the culture of origin. In this respect, the French notion of assimilation goes one step further to denote the complete denial of any identity other than one that matches the identity of the members of the majority French group.<\/p>\n In a pluralist society such as ours, different cultures come into contact with each other and changes in our behaviour are bound to occur. When different groups present diverse behaviours within the same territory, these differences have the potential to result in conflict. Whether or not these differences result in conflict is contingent on the acculturation strategies of the non-dominant migrant group and the dominant host society.<\/p>\n Some societies, like France, seek to eliminate diversity through policies and programs of assimilation while others may be accepting of cultural pluralism and adopt a multicultural ideology. Assimilation occurs when individuals do not desire to maintain their cultural identity and seek interaction with other groups and the adoption of the dominant group\u2019s values and culture. In this case individuals shed their heritage culture and become part of the dominant society.<\/p>\n Manuel Boucher, a French social scientist, who has studied the race riots breaking out in the French \u2018banlieues\u2019<\/em>, notes \u201cAu nom de la lutte contre la fragmentation de la nation et de l\u2019\u00e9clatement de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 politique, il s\u2019agit, pour le nouvel arrivant, s’installant en France, d\u2019abandonner ses valeurs propres, celles de sa communaut\u00e9 d\u2019origine et d’approprier les valeurs fondamentales de la nation fran\u00e7aise.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Societal inclusion is an integral part of developing a strong national identity and can be impeded if immigrants are met with discrimination or rejection from the host society. Immigrants who are isolated by the host society are unlikely to be satisfied or productive members of society. However, due to the primacy of one\u2019s ethnic identity as a defining characteristic, pressures from the host society to assimilate and give up one\u2019s sense of ethnicity and values may result in anger, depression, and, in some cases violence. When immigrants feel that the host society is unwilling to accept or support the migrant groups\u2019 value system and culture, acculturation may take the form of segregation or separation.<\/p>\n All societies must find a balance between accepting culture retention and fostering adaptation to the larger society. The lesson we Mauritians have to learn from this controversy around the issue of ethnicity and national identity is that we need to celebrate diversity. Amartya Sen, the Indian scholar, has written a book on identity entitled \u201cIdentity and Violence<\/em>\u201d, which is an echo of the Lebanese-born French author Amin Maalouf\u2019s work \u201cLes Identit\u00e9s Meurtri\u00e8res<\/em>\u201d, both emphasising that all of us have multiple identities. It is also helpful to bear in mind at all times the American poet Walt Whitman\u2019s humbling iconic line \u201cI am large. I contain multitudes<\/strong>,\u201d which is a reference to the multiple identities that we all, including Mauritians, carry, and yet hide behind identity politics in the public sphere.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n * Published in print edition on 3 August 2018<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Conflicting Notions of Ethnicity and Nationality<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":15458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[12581,12582,12593,12595,12598,12586,12590,12597,12097,12580,12587,12594,12589,376,445,12591,12583,12579,12599,12596,12585,994,12584,12588,12592,1799,12578],"class_list":["post-15487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","tag-amartya-sen","tag-amin-maalouf","tag-anti-immigration-stance","tag-asian-and-african-heritage","tag-assimilation","tag-bicultural-identity","tag-cultural-conflict","tag-douglas-murray","tag-ethnic-diversity","tag-ethnicity-and-nationality","tag-ethno-cultural-identity","tag-french-and-british-colonial-past","tag-french-culture","tag-front-national","tag-identity-politics","tag-islamic-headscarf","tag-manuel-boucher","tag-mauritian-character","tag-melting-pot","tag-models-of-integration","tag-monocultural-society","tag-multiculturalism","tag-nation-francaise","tag-nation-state","tag-race-relations","tag-satish-kumar-mahadeo","tag-walt-whitman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Unite-National-1-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C659&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-41N","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Unite-National-1-3.jpg?resize=640%2C352&ssl=1\")
Trevor Noah, an American comedian of South African origin, recently said in a joke in his very popular \u2018Daily Show\u2019<\/em> that Africa has won the 2018 World Cup thanks to the contribution of African migrants in the multi-racial team of France. He immediately got into trouble with the French Ambassador to the USA who was very critical of his comment, arguing that the migrants who played in the team were full-fledged Frenchmen.<\/p>\n
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