Parcours migratoires et pratiques langagières : sociolinguistique ethnographique de la migration française à Toronto (Canada)
(2005)
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- Abstract
- In this anthropolinguistic study of a group of French immigrants in Toronto, the aim is to show that migration processes and language practices are in close interaction with regard to the production of identity for social actors who have resettled in a distant country. French migrants undergo various forms of social adaptation which are partially influenced by their linguistic and discursive practices. It means that their choices and constraints in terms of language at work, at home and outside the home contribute considerably to the production of who they have become in this new society. Fundamental questions are raised in the dissertation: to what extent do these immigrants remain French? Have they become Anglo-Canadians? What are their attitudes and behaviours towards the Franco-Ontarian minority? The research inquires into what experience and events shape the various symbolic affiliations and sociolinguistic conducts expounded in the interviews and observed out in the field. It thus identifies different and shifting sorts of "ethnocultural" affiliations, as well as the frequent tendency to opt for a non-ethnicized approach of social relationships. Those people's French origins, with the legitimacy that this essentialist sense of belonging brings to them in the eyes of the English Canadian majority, puts them in paradoxically advantageous and disadvantageous situations, in particular on the Toronto job market. In an officially bilingual country such as Canada, language is often regarded as a commodity. Many French immigrants partake in this "commodification" of the French language, because it provides not only employment opportunities, but also importance as well as power in the French-speaking "host" minority. Furthermore, it allows them to warrant the success of their migration path. However, this option creates the possibility for conflict with other members of the French-speaking minority such as the Franco-Ontarians and the Québécois. Hence a mutual defiance which lies not in historical events but rather on the potential control of the linguistic market. The research shows that for French immigrants in Toronto, capitalizing on one's language skills can actually prove more difficult and produce more tensions than they thought when they realized the opportunities the Canadian economic metropolis offered. Many of them endeavour anyhow to make the most out their linguistic capital, thus minimizing the risks of a failed migration path and maximizing the returns it may bring. Simultaneously and quite paradoxically, capitalizing on the French language often means increased interactions with anglophones or other non French-speaking Canadians. This pattern, the changes it entails, as well as the tensions arising from the quest for legitimacy partially account for the limited involvement of immigrants from France in the French-speaking Canadian circles in Toronto.
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Forlot, G. (2005). Parcours migratoires et pratiques langagières : sociolinguistique ethnographique de la migration française à Toronto (Canada). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/36676