Empire's leftovers: Eating to integrate in secular Paris

Abstract

ABSTRACTFaced with heightened xenophobia and economic decline, middle class Senegalese in Paris provide a striking example of the ways immigrants reinforce transnational hierarchies as they cling to (post)colonial privilege. This article examines how Senegalese immigrants and their French-born children draw on eating practices to index religion as an axis of social differentiation, producing hierarchies of belonging in France. In the context of escalating anti-Islamic sentiment, even naturalized citizens feel pressure to permanently perform their integration according to the ever-shifting demands of French secularism, as “eating French” is increasingly defined in opposition to the practices of Muslim immigrants from France's former colonies. This article shows how French Republicanism contributes to a tiered form of citizenship through examination of the ways that educated migrants from Dakar and their children adopt the language of secularism to valorize their own eating practices relative to other transnational (Senegalese) migrants.