IDENTITY CRISIS AND ASSIMILATION OF CHILDREN OF NORTH-AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS IN FRANCE: THE BEURS (Pages 158-169) by Dr. Walter Hugh Parker in THE INTERNATIONAL MANAGER / ISSN: 2348-9413 (Online); 2348-9405 (Print)

France has successfully integrated thousands of immigrants, such as the Italians and Polish, into its population for hundreds of years. Recently, however, the tension within French society between the native French and its North African immigrants has come to the attention of not only France, but of the world. What, if any, are the barriers to North African integration into French society? Has the traditional French model of assimilation failed? Despite consistent promotion of French monoculture and specifically the use of the assimilation model for integration, segregation of African Muslims has occurred, in particular, in the case of children of North African immigrants in France, labeled under the term ‘Beur’ which was formed by reversing the syllables of the French word for ‘Arab’ (arabe). With the help of selected references and articles, this paper aims to analyze the lives of these children as well as barriers of assimilation in order to determine whether there is proof of an ongoing identity crisis, which in turn will indicate if assimilation has failed or succeeded. However, French assimilation of African Muslims is not a complete failure due to marginal successes of African Muslims in political and economic arenas. Three main issues will be examined in the context of assimilation. The segregation of the North African community in France, the influence of Islam, and racism all play a part in the barrier to North Africans’ integration into French society. As a result of these factors, a dual identity among immigrants may have developed, fluctuating between an ethnic and French identity. This paper will therefore reflect on the presence of an identity crisis, and a partial failure of assimilation of children of North-African immigrants in France. Keywords: immigrants, French society, North African immigrants, French monoculture, African Muslims, Beur, French identity etc.