Mediterranean Crossings : Postcoloniality and Migratory Practices from France to the Maghreb

Despite shifts in perspective and theoretical renewal, socio-anthropology continues to neglect evermore significant North-South movements. Inversing the canonical distinction between countries of immigration and countries of emigration, this proposal problematizes the categories hitherto used to define these movements and presents the main results of a group research project on mobility from France to the Maghreb countries. At the crossroads of urban and migration studies, the proposed approach underscores the complexity of actors’ experiences, in addition to the ways in which they position themselves in relation to the spatial movement undertaken. The diversity of figures, trajectories and networks but also the imaginaries and practices  that emerge from mobility, giving rise to distinct social situations, will be discussed using a specific and historically salient ethnographic case study: that of Algeria. Particular attention will be paid to the impacts of these social situations on local society and the logics of interaction produced.