An address in Paris : emplacement, bureaucracy, and belonging in West African hostels / Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mbodj-Pouye, Aïssatou, author.

Series:

Black lives in the diaspora

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

West Africans--France--Social conditions.

West Africans.

West Africans--Dwellings--France.

Immigrants--France--Social conditions.

Immigrants.

Black people--France--Social conditions.

Black people.

France--Race relations.

France.

France--Emigration and immigration.

Black people--Social conditions.

Emigration and immigration.

Immigrants--Social conditions.

Race relations.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2023]

System Details:

text file PDF

Summary:

"In present-day Paris, dozens of brand-new buildings, each housing up to 300 individuals, are replacing foyers - a typically French form of housing designed for single male labor migrants in the late colonial period. This is part of a nationwide scheme targeting West African migrants' integration into the French Republic. The new buildings are distinct from the previous structures in that they provide autonomous studios instead of multiple rooms for each resident, offer fewer collective spaces, and are designed with the prospect of housing an ethnically diverse population. Rather than a smooth transition from dilapidated structures to better accommodations however, the process has been fraught with tensions, stirring deep debates on the future of the West African presence in France. Taking the present effort to integrate West Africans as a starting point for the investigation of what is a 60-year-old colonial story, in An Address in Paris Aïssatou Mbodj examines the ruptures and continuities in the life of the West African immigrants in France. More specifically, she explores how the foyers became the migration infrastructure through administrative actors in charge of migration and urban policies and migrants themselves. Scrutinizing the physical and social evolution of these structures, the book combines a history of postcolonial migration and French cities with accounts of the lives of generations of immigrant men. She argues that the foyers are spaces where an original sense of emplacement is forged. Through nine chapters organized into three parts, Mbodj weaves together historical accounts and ethnographic descriptions, demonstrating that diverging chronologies and disputed understandings of the foyers' creation lie at the heart of present-day tensions. In conclusion, she provides a counterpoint to the common image of an urban exclusion of Black communities and draws attention the constrained yet politically effective agency made possible by a shared life in the foyers"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Improvising the foyers: Franco-African institutions of migration (1958-1967)

Modern buildings : political challenges, administrative anxieties, and the consolidation of the foyer system (1968-1979)

Performance and decay : African foyers, from solution to problem (1980s-1990s)

Tolerated bonds : living together in the foyers

When will the foyers end? Contentions renovations and temporal disjunctions

Acknowledging solidarity : bureaucratic relatedness, hosting practices, and exclusionary dynamics

Foyermen. Class, gender, and race across generations

Eroded emplacement. Urban incorporation, containment policies, and the politics of belonging

Focal points : reflections from the foyers.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based upon print version of record.

Other Format:

Print version: Mbodj-Pouye, Aïssatou Address in Paris

ISBN:

9780231558907

0231558902

OCLC:

1401057474

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license