North Africans in Contemporary France (PDF)

RICHARD DERDERIAN is Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore, Singapore.

'The book is easy to read and will appeal to a lay as well as scholarly audience. Anyone interested in French politics, history, North African immigration, immigration, minority studies, etc. will find the book interesting or useful.' - Patricia Lorcin, Texas Tech University

'Richard Derderian's North Africans in Contemporary France: Becoming Visible, is a chronicle as engaging, complex, and historically rich as its subjects: North African peoples from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia shaped and shaping themselves as beurs and citizens in France from the 1970s through the 1990s. Taking issue with notions of minorities, multiculturalism, memory, and immigration, Derderian reconstructs the multiple pasts and ethnic and religious questions which frame tales of North African adaptation, assimilation, and apartness in France from the Algerian War to the Parisian banlieues of the late twentieth century. Drawing on extensive interviews and scholarly literatures with a critical flair, Derderian offers insightful portraits of popular political movements, community organizations, artists, Radio Beur pioneers, and North African television characters, shaping a vision of contemporary France as a contested, changing landscape of vital and ambivalent identities.' - Matt Matsuda, Rutgers University

'Derderian's book is a welcome analysis of one of the most controversial topics in contemporary France, namely the place of North Africans within French society. Clearly written, he deals with issues such as the memory of wars of decolonization and the role of Islam in a subtle and perceptive manner. As such it should be required reading for anybody who wants to know how Europe is grappling with the post-colonial world.' - Martin Evans, Reader in Contemporary History, University of Portsmouth, UK

'[T]he book provides a valuable history of the North African immigrant community from the 1970s to the mid-1990s and intervenes intelligently in important, ongoing