Abstract
This article offers a socio-analysis of the discourse and strategies of one young emigrant from rural Kabylia to disclose the social conditions that simultaneously triggered and obfuscated the springs of mass emigration from Algeria to France during the post-war decades. Drawing on Kabyle mythical tradition, the informant produces a folk model of the mechanism whereby emigration is produced and reproduced in which the alienated and mystified experience of exile ( `el ghorba') plays a pivotal role. The collective misrecognition of the objective truth of emigration is maintained by the whole group: the emigrants select the information that they bring back when visiting their home village; former emigrants `enchant' the memories they have kept of France; and the candidates for emigration project onto `France' their most unrealistic expectations. Such symbolic collusion is the necessary mediation through which economic necessity can exercise itself and emigration perpetuate itself even when the material forces that gave rise to it turn out illusory or vanish.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.