Editorial: New Ethnic Issues

The issue of ethnicity has always been a controversial one, especially in France — whether on the mainland in relation to regional minorities or migrants, or in the French overseas territories. As a former colonial Empire and an epitome of secular republicanism, France resists use of any ethnic identification, including in the academic world and anthropology. This topical collection reconsiders this position and takes stock of the “ethnic situations” in relation to the new postcolonial and post-socialist historical conditions, the generalisation of the global market, the accelerated movement of goods and people, as well as the intensification of the diasporic phenomenon. The various contributions provide insights into specific ethnic affiliations, seen from the inside, in diverse ethnographic fields related to migration to France, from Senegal, Morocco, Comoros, Asia, or within the framework of particular French institutions.This editorial seeks to give space to consideration of the issue of ethnicity, emancipating it from its current national suppression in France, by connecting it to other currents of thought developed by non-French, French-speaking sociologists, such as Danielle Juteau, and English-speaking sociologists, in particular Jean and John Comaroff, who have addressed this topical collection in diverse national contexts (Quebec, United States, South Africa, China, etc.). The authors of this editorial and coordinator of this topical collection emphasise that ethnic affiliations show a real capacity of adaptation, paradoxically using it as a means of integration into the French urban economy and republican landscape, as a way to promote their form of citizenship. They show how this sociological category can be interpreted by individuals in a rigid way, or with openness to other ethnic markers, thus demonstrating “transethnic competence”. They conclude that, far from being an archaism, ethnic dynamics are always at work in contexts dominated by national representations. Moreover, ethnic identification, one of the modalities of perception of otherness, which should not be limited to minorities as it also concerns majority groups, deserves a specific approach, distinct from race and discrimination. This editorial and topical collection of the Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales seek to contribute, from the perspective of the case of France to the general and international reflection on the processes of ethnic differentiation in a globalised world.ethnic, ethnicity, ethno-nations, minorities, majorities, migration, diasporas, circulation, imagination, market, globalisation, associations, hospital, religion, race, Asians, Moroccans, France, Senegal, Mayotte, Comoros

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