I have
interviewed everyone at my Parisian school but 2.5 teachers, and hope to
complete those before we leave (obviously). I also want to do a second interview
with the principal to ask about some things that have come up. Also have the two
wonderful women from the afterschool program in the 18e arrondissement….one is
this Wednesday, the other is the last week I am in Paris, followed by lunch
with the two of them. Then there are two additional school principals, one
recommended by my school’s principal and one by Hélène at the non-profit. I
should remember to call them tomorrow to try to schedule them. Both have lots
of experience in schools with immigrant children. I’m not a big fan of cold-calling people in
Paris, just because adapting to someone’s French over the phone is always
somewhat challenging; I prefer cold-emailing when I can monitor my written French. I’ve been getting some practice by calling up
restaurants for reservations, and talking to AVIS rent-a-car offices to figure
out where to return a car after an upcoming road trip on a Sunday (answer: randomly park it at the
train station and give the keys to the SNCF reps!?!).
Most educators I
have interviewed express a view that children of immigrant families are French,
period. As an American, I understand that to a certain extent (although
immigration has become such a political mess in the US, many people would not
agree with viewing children of immigrants as Americans if they were not born in
the US or formally naturalized). There is a tangible discomfort in France with the idea that
immigrants, including children, hold onto other social identities, such as
being African, Malian, Senegalese, Ivorian, etc., or Black, or being Muslim.
During a recent
conversation with Hélène, the director of the non-profit, I asked her about
this and she recounted the story of an Ivorian woman she has known since the
woman arrived in Paris as a child some 22 years ago, and started attending the
afterschool programs offered at the non-profit organization. At a meeting in
the quartier after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, native French residents were
stating that immigrants must integrate into the neighborhood and French society.
This woman stood up and admonished the crowd, telling them that in the 22 years
she has lived here, she has never once been invited into a French home. She
asked how such integration is supposed to occur when there is such a distance
between native French people and immigrants.
In an upcoming post,
I will discuss how the French Minister of Education, herself an immigrant from Morocco,
has addressed, since the January attacks, the role that she sees schools playing
in this integration of immigrants.
No comments:
Post a Comment