Home > Explore Content > All Issues > Article View
A Study on the Migration of the Berbers in France and their Current Status
Cross-Cultural Studies
2016,
42(), pp.131-163
DOI : 10.21049/ccs.2016.42..131
Publisher : Center for Cross Culture Studies
Research Area : Literature
DOI : 10.21049/ccs.2016.42..131
Publisher : Center for Cross Culture Studies
Research Area : Literature
-
The issue of migrants has always been a social problem in France. Particularly, migration issues from the Maghreb region to multicultural France are recognized as topics of confrontation and conflict. One of the many reasons would be that the Maghreb migrant issue is interpreted with a hostile or conflicting ‘Arab-Islam’ meaning in the West. Therefore, the naming of natives from this region as ‘Arab-Maghrebis’ has become a common phenomenon. However, deeper understanding of the Maghreb region will explain that such naming could produce a number of problems. This is because the native Maghrebis, not only in the Maghreb region but also in France, are Berbers. Among the various Berbers, the Kabyles are in many ways different from the Arabs in their language, culture, and way of thinking. Apart from the difference in their lifestyle, there is a deep anti-Arab sentiment within them that represents their resistance against the hundreds-of-years Arab domination. This feature has also been used as France’s tool of colonial division policy during the colonization period. The purpose of this study is to discuss the settlement process of the Kabyles in France by paying attention to their features. The Kabyles were the first to migrate to France among the natives of the Maghreb region. This study focuses on the process of their migration and search for identity, as well as how they continued to form community and the Berber’s cultural movement. Through these series of processes, it is possible to point out the fictitious claim in France and in Korea that Maghrebis are Arab-Muslims. Lastly, the current use of Berber language in France and Algeria is not a coincidental phenomenon, rather it has a connection with the prolonged cultural movement and the settlement process of the migrants in France.
346 Viewed
Print this page
Download PDF