To Belong or Not To Belong: Ethnic, Religious and National Identities among second and third-generation Algerians in a Post-Colonial France

Discrimination and segregation continue to affect North-African groups, who are often negatively portrayed as the 'other' and denied the opportunity to claim an ethnic and/or religious identity. Current literature suggests that the topic of ethnic minority identifications and assimilation is more developed in the US than in France. The lack of research is explained by the absence of official censuses on ethnicity, race, and religion. The area of race, ethnicity, and religion remains somehow taboo in the colour-blind France. Therefore, many areas remain overlooked and unexplored by social scientists. Using a qualitative methodology, twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted (ten with the second-generation and ten with the third), this research aims to explore the ethnic, religious, and national identity of second and third-generation Algerians in France. The research findings support that the Algerian identity in France is indivisible from the colonial past. It unpacks identity mechanisms and strategies adopted by the participants to make sense of their ethnic, religious and national identity in the French post-colonial, assimilationist, and colour-blind context. Furthermore, this study discusses patterns of intergenerational identity negotiation, including ethnic revival, reactivity, and reconciliation. Finally, this research challenges the notion of straight-line assimilation for second and third-generation Algerians and supports the idea of segmented assimilation instead. The study highlights the overlapping of exclusion based on ethnicity, religion, social status, economics, and residential location, which has led to the emergence of new identity trends among the second and third generations of Algerians.