Cultural exchange between French and North African parents in two interactive contexts

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present a conceptual framework illustrating the dynamic of intercultural attitudes between indigenous French and North African immigrant parents living in the same 'banlieu', a suburban underprivileged neighbourhood. Both these sets of cultural actors participate in meetings organised by community workers who lead remedial teaching sessions with the purpose of assisting children with their homework after school hours. The hypothesis being pursued is fairly straight forward: During one's socialisation, a specific idea of 'the other' - as a native of a different culture - is progressively constructed. This idea is then confronted with the perception of the other in one's day-to-day life and encounters in the same neighbourhood. Consequently, and specifically in this context of neighbourhood, the sense of identity can be threatened and tested because 'native' and 'immigrant' occupy the same space, and will therefore be obliged to reconsider their prior, generalised constructs of each other's cultural traits. Defence mechanisms such as introjection and projection come into play as the persons select 'facts' taken from reality to protect themselves and strengthen their cultural prejudices. Thus, while a psychological balance is possible, existing prejudices can change or be reinforced in the context of personal encounters. In these situations, positive attitudes are more likely to develop because parents gather together in an harmonious space, where they are considered collectively by community workers as parents, irrespective of their ethnic background.