| Bio | 
| Presentation |
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Margaret Jackson
University of North Carolina at Asheville
Subject Listing - Political Science
Advisor: Dr. John Wood
Saturday, Oral Session 7, Presentation 5, Karpen Hall 113
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: TRANSCULTURAL IDENTITIES, MALI AND FRANCE
More and more frequently one must consider translocation when talking about people anywhere. According to France's 1999 Census, about ten percent of foreign born people in France are from Sub-Saharan Africa and of those about ten percent have assumed French nationality. More accurate figures would probably be double or perhaps triple because of the number of unregistered immigrants. Immigration issues in France have been especially sensitive as of late, an example being the recent riots in November of 2005 which involved African immigrants. Immigrants all over the world negotiate where they come from and where they are living in various ways as cultural practices are maintained, challenged and transformed. What is sometimes termed cultural coexistence includes letting go and acquiring aspects of different cultures. Ambivalence is also a part of the transnational experience as people find themselves juggling between the culture they grew up with and the foreign one in which they live. African literature about immigration provides insight into the lives of people moving between African countries and France. In addition, this project includes interviews and field observations from a year in France and a month in Mali. Its aim is to discover the different ways in which Malians' personal narratives and stories reveal the particularities of how they adjust to living in France. Interviewees were asked questions such as: How do you compare life in France to that of Mali? How is your life different? What were some of the adjustments you've had to make to life in France, or to life back in Mali? In what ways do you keep something of Mali with you in France, or something of France with you back in Mali? The literature and especially the interviews show the significance of translocation while expanding cross-cultural understandings.
Co-Advisors:
- Dr. John Wood, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Asheville, Asheville, NC
- Dr. Heidi Kelley, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Asheville, Asheville, NC
Advisor: Dr. John Wood, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Asheville, Asheville, NC