While the traditional approach within the French social sciences has endorsed the French State's official policy of colour-blindness, critical literature on French national identity and citizenship has highlighted the central roles of colonialism and 'race' in official constructions of 'Frenchness'. Empirically, parts of this literature have often centred post-war migration from former French colonies by exploring the experiences and identity formation process of French citizens of North African, West African, and Black Caribbean descent. However, the histories, migration trajectories, identities, and lived experiences of groups of South Asian descent remain under-explored in the French context. Furthermore, the small body of literature that has paid attention to these groups has often reproduced problematic - and at times opposing - tropes of 'model minorities' and backward 'ethnic communities' that voluntarily choose to live in seclusion from broader French society. In this thesis, I address current gaps and problems in relation to existing knowledge on French citizens of South Asian descent. I do so by investigating the ways in which dominant definitions of Frenchness impact the lived experiences and identities of French citizens of Indian descent and how, in turn, these people create their own identities in hexagonal France. I particularly focus on two groups: Indo-Guadeloupeans, who acquired French citizenship at the end of the indenture system in the French Caribbean, and Non-Overseas Franco-Indians, who could 'naturalise' through various policies in former French 'Establishments' in India. Based on an online ethnography of Instagram pages, online fora, and organisations discussing South Asian identities in France and twenty semi-structured interviews with Indo-Guadeloupeans and Non-Overseas Franco-Indians, I argue that my participants resist invisibility and racialised exclusion by creating diasporic identities that help them position their identities and experiences in hexagonal France. I demonstrate that respondents create their own identities in three main ways: through a collective, online and offline 'Brown' French identity; through a wide range of coping mechanisms and strategies to navigate mainstream French society and negotiate 'Frenchness'; and by fulfilling a 'homing desire' (Brah, 2005) through various scales of belonging: the family, the 'ethnic community', the 'diaspora space' (ibid), and the global scale that includes the Caribbean region and India.
French citizens of Indian descent: resisting invisibility and claiming space in hexagonal France through the creation of diasporic identities
Latchoumaya, M. (Author). 1 Aug 2024
Student thesis: Phd