Forever Foreigners
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Many interviewees point to their non-European faciès (facial features) as a key marker of exclusion. This physical difference perpetuates a sense that they do not belong, regardless of their citizenship or cultural assimilation. (what I myself faced many times in my not so long experience as a migrant. The sense the people want to affiliate with SOMETHING, always the first question is: Are you Arab? Are you Indian? Are you Iranian? Are you ...? Are you ...?; It is as if the nationality which comes with my face needs to introduced first before anything goes further.)
In this reading we have Karim who notes that his appearance ensures he will never be truly accepted as French: "A foreigner remains a foreigner forever." Even his children, despite having French mothers and being mostly white-passing, are still perceived as "foreigners" due to subtle physical traits like "kinky hair."
Despite adopting French norms, language, and values—what some describe as being "more French than the French"—interviewees still face rejection. Karim's "false assimilation" exemplifies this: while he has embraced French values and identity, he ultimately realizes that his efforts will never fully erase his outsider status in the eyes of others.
Moreover, experiences with racism in education, employment, and public spaces reinforce the idea of permanent foreignness. For instance, Karim recalls being treated with condescension in his village, and others recount being scrutinized in stores or rejected in social settings because of their ethnicity.
The rejection experienced by interviewees often leads to a fractured sense of identity, as they feel neither fully French nor fully tied to their countries of origin. Karim encapsulates this with his statement: "I feel like I have no country." The feeling of living lives in between and never fully belong to what was once the home and what you try to make home out of it.