1In this comment, I make some observations on family, gender, and the experiences of discrimination in Saïd’s story, in relation to mobility, integration, and place. As a migration scholar, I research spatial mobility in relation to family, generation, and gender, and particularly among migrants in China. Research on international and internal migrants has highlighted how the movement and return of individuals and their family members are affected by forms of integration or exclusion in destinations (Wang and Fan 2012; Carling and Pettersen 2014). For example, the lack of suitable educational institutions at a destination or the inability to access such institutions is one of the reasons migrant families adopt split-household arrangements (Chan and Ren 2018). I welcome the present opportunity to consider integration and mobility issues in the French commune of Givors in the metropolis of Lyon, and in the city of Montpellier, as these places feature in the case of Saïd, a 25-year-old French citizen whose parents immigrated to France from Algeria. I begin by commenting on the role of Saïd’s family in his integration, that is, the general process of his adaptation to society in the places he lives. I also comment on the relevance of his religion to both his family and his integration. Second, I make a few observations on gender and the young man’s desire for spatial mobility. Third, I comment on Saïd’s experiences of discrimination in relation to integration and several kinds of mobility, and I conclude by recalling Saïd’s own vision of an integrated society.

Family as a Facilitator of Integration and Local Attachment

2By encouraging Saïd to read broadly and work diligently in pursuit of a (secular, Francophone) education, his family has facilitated his integration into the larger French society. Amidst the skepticism with which religion has been viewed in France (Foner and Alba 2008), and against the notion that Islam is an obstacle to integration in Europe, Saïd’s case suggests that his religion may have helped him to integrate, both by encouraging him to refrain from “vices,” such as illegal drugs, that could have brought him trouble with the police or affected his studies or work, and by reinforcing the importance of cooperation with his family members. As he explains, “… for a Muslim, there are two [kinds of] jihad. One of them is to defend his country, and people often interpret [this] very badly. … [But] the first and the main mission of the Muslim is … the fight against his own demons. That is to say, to fight his own vices, and this is the hardest for me ….” More generally, Saïd believes that “religion [is] … about being oneself, a better being.” In pursuit of this “main mission,” the Givors imam has helped him to learn “how to question oneself.” The imam, he says, “has challenged me a lot of times, on a lot of things. On the weight of the family, on forgiveness … [E]ven if one is in the deepest evil, one will never find more support [anywhere other than] in the family.”

3Among both migrants and non-migrants, an individual’s relationship to the larger society usually begins within the family. The second generation may not need to “assimilate” in the way their immigrant parents did, but all young people need to “find their place in social organizations which are crucial for ‘survival’ in society” (Crul and Schneider 2010, 1252), a process in which family networks and education are often very important. Research in the United States has indicated that family is the most important institutional environment outside of school for socialization, adaptation, and the future social mobility of children (Zhou 1997). A study of second-generation children found that having both parents in the household had strongly positive effects on their academic achievement (Portes, Fernandez-Kelly and Haller 2005). In Saïd’s case, each of his parents appears to have played an essential role in his education and his general adaptation to society.

4Saïd’s mother, an immigrant from Algeria, arrived in France as a child, began learning French, and later became a teacher of French to second-language learners. When she became a mother, she drew on her experience as a teacher to emphasize the importance of French-language competency to her children, and she encouraged them to read extensively. Saïd describes how he read the books given to him by his mother when he was growing up and how he now continues to read a wide variety of popular fiction, classic literature, media, and political writing, which he sees as helpful in the development of a person’s mind and sense of perspective. He understands education as, among other things, a means for people to develop the intelligence to evaluate the news media, the platforms of various politicians, and the speeches of “extremists” who would encourage division and violence.

5Saïd’s father, also from Algeria, has been a role model to him, exemplifying hard work, simple living, and sacrifice for the sake of family. “I always had this righteousness that he instilled [in] me, little by little,” says Saïd. In the face of racial discrimination, Saïd’s father advises him that it cannot be avoided, and he recommends that Saïd work “twice as hard” to make a positive impression. Saïd also notes that when his father considered whom to bring into the family home, he made sure to avoid exposing his children to anyone who could be a harmful example, a caution that may have had positive effects for the development of Saïd’s social network and those of his siblings. As Saïd was growing up, both of his parents emphasized the importance of education, and they established a system of limits and rewards that Saïd perceived as fair and which helped to motivate him and his brothers to apply themselves to their schoolwork. His siblings encouraged his efforts as well, both through “competition” and eventually through “mutual aid.” Scholars have found that among families in France that have at least one immigrant parent, help from siblings plays an important role in the academic success of children, apparently a greater role than it does in the majority population, perhaps especially for families of Algerian heritage (Moguérou and Santelli 2015). In the context of tertiary education, Saïd also indicates how multiple siblings can tax the family’s resources, and for this reason he declines to seek further help from his parents to fund his academic studies as an adult. Overall, there are many indications that his family has encouraged and facilitated his integration into society, especially by emphasizing and exemplifying commitments to education and diligence, by helping to guard Saïd against influences that would lead him to acquire potentially deleterious habits, and by encouraging him to have a positive and determined attitude toward using his own exemplary behavior to counter prejudice in society.

6Relatedly, Saïd’s religious education reinforces the importance of family and encourages him to have a balanced, analytic attitude toward ideas advanced in religious terms. His conversations with a young Christian woman, he notes, were some of the best conversations on religion he has ever had. His emphasis on the essential similarity of Christians and Muslims suggests that the kinds of religion and belief systems that he has learned in his home, mosque, and local community pose no conflict with his integration into wider society. Rather, his religious orientation appears to be entirely compatible with his positive appraisal of secular education and his pro-diversity, pro-integration attitudes. His perspective also appears consistent with the “moral universalism informed by Islam” and notions of “similarity between all human beings” that scholars have observed to be common among North African immigrants in France (Lamont, Morning and Mooney 2002).

7Saïd’s difficulties finding a suitable career seem to be attributable in part to his lack of insider knowledge about what certain careers and programs of study entail, and perhaps also to the failure of institutions to accommodate his interests and competencies, including in the context of his desire to relocate. How being a child of immigrants matters to all of this is not clear. It seems like many of the challenges he faces could be encountered by any person who seeks to leap beyond the personal and familial spheres of knowledge, into unfamiliar professional and educational realms. His attempt to become a court clerk, for example, was destined to be unsuccessful because he lacked the insider knowledge of the other candidates, and he did not know the path that applicants generally follow to be admitted to that position. One wonders if Saïd might have had an easier time finding stable work—a marker of greater integration—if he had pursued a less exploratory path, though such a path might also have left him less informed about the workings of broader society.

8Saïd refers to “fraternity” with the friends he has made through sport, potentially suggesting some extension of the concept of family to a wider sphere. His wide network of contacts in Givors allows him to feel safe there and helps him find opportunities. At the same time, being known and easily observed in a relatively small community has limited the extent of his dating activities, and it seems to have encouraged him to try to attend university in another city. When Saïd compares the neighborhood he grew up in to the noisy, more centrally located apartment of his grandparents, he seems to appreciate the environment in which his parents chose to raise him, and to prefer it, on the whole, to the “unhealthy” density of the housing projects. Thus, notwithstanding Givors’ reputation, Saïd’s move to Montpellier looks less like an attempt to escape a bad place than an adventure some exploration of a new place and the pursuit of at least a few years of a different lifestyle of greater freedom, the kind of move that, around the world, is not at all uncommon at his point in the course of life. Even rural-urban labor migrants in China, who rarely attend college and tend to maintain close relationships with their natal families throughout their lives, are also motivated to leave their hometowns in young adulthood, at least in part because of their desires to see more of the world and to gain some measure of independence relative to their families.

9Saïd did not complete law school in Montpellier, apparently because he was not able to secure continued funding. At first glance, one could interpret his return to Givors without a law degree as a failed migration, or an example of the way in which constraints on educational, economic, social, and geographic mobilities operate in tandem. However, Saïd himself counts his journey as a success in that it was a learning experience and it allowed him to become a more capable individual. Moreover, it is not clear that he ever intended to leave the Givors-Lyon area for good. Following his return, Saïd developed a newfound appreciation for his family. “I’ve never been so happy to come back, to see my family again. … I have the impression that we have all evolved, but I especially think that it is I who matured …. [I]t might be a bit of a world-wide experience to get out of town, at least a year, two years, to live on your own and come back afterwards to see how lucky we are to be here, to know people, to be able to go forward, to look for work or that kind of thing.” Saïd’s time in Montpellier appears to have advanced his own capabilities, exposed him to a bit of the wider world, and at the same time enhanced his connection to Givors. “… [T]his city I know, I know by heart, I can walk with my eyes closed. I have no problem, there is no fear, no problem of insecurity.” Given the lack of suitable work opportunities in Givors, Saïd intends to look for work in nearby Lyon and to try to find an apartment there. As he explains, “with my father we made a contract … that whoever will have the charge of this house, will have to help the other brothers to have their houses. Our goal is really to help each other. Me, eventually I would like … [to] have a house and see what we could bring to this city. But that’s really very, very long term!” Saïd shows a deep attachment to the area and a long-term intention to remain, suggesting that, in addition to facilitating his educational integration into French society when he was younger, his family members presently encourage his connection to the local area through their continued presence and their support for one another.

Gender and the Desire for Spatial Mobility

10Gender elements in Saïd’s story are not prominent, but there are some indications of the role gender has played in his family and social life. His father appears to have been the primary breadwinner for his family, but his mother also worked (as a teacher of French to second-language learners), suggesting that she found time to contribute to the family income before she had to devote her time to raising children. The mother also seems to have played a larger role than the father in encouraging the boys to read, consistent with studies of families in France with at least one immigrant parent that have found mothers generally play a greater role, compared to fathers, in helping children with their studies (Moguérou and Santelli 2015, 11).

11The consequences of premarital sex for men and women are quite distinct in Saïd’s community. “[W]hen we go out with girlfriends, in religion, we are supposed to wait for the wedding.” Dating and perhaps premarital sex, he seems to suggest, is “an honor for men, but for her, it’s destroying her life! … She’s going to be considered a … She will have trouble! … She’s going to have a hard time finding a guy … she’s made a reputation for ….” For his part, Saïd says that, religion notwithstanding, “if I want to do it, I’ll do it,” and in the anonymity Montpellier afforded him, he seems to have found the freedom he sought. On its own, this case cannot tell us too much about how gender norms affect the integration of men and women in France who have an immigrant parent, but it does indicate that social-sexual restrictions in Saïd’s community are greater for women than for men, and that religious and cultural gender norms can play a role in men’s desire to leave the vicinity of their natal family in search of greater freedoms.

Discrimination as a Constraint on Mobility in Geographic, Social, Educational, and Occupational Domains

12Research on the children of immigrants in France has shown that the second generation is severely disadvantaged in the labor market, compared to children of the native born, in a wide range of economic sectors, and discrimination against descendants of immigrants of sub-Saharan African, North African, and Turkish origin is particularly prevalent (Meurs, Pailhé and Simon 2006). Both women and men in these categories face employment discrimination, and some evidence points to gender-specific obstacles, such as cultural barriers for females and the stigma of being dangerous for males.

13Saïd has faced various challenges with police, security officers, and border agents, on account of his appearance and the ideas these authority figures have about people who appear to be of North African origin or ancestry. When Saïd and his friend were seen running, police suspected them of having illegal drugs. At least one and possibly more of Saïd’s encounters with retail security officers indicated that they suspected him of theft on account of his ethnic appearance. Saïd believes his visible ethnicity was also the reason a young woman guarded her purse when she saw him. At the Swiss border, a border guard assumed that Saïd and his brothers were not French citizens. “The whole group passes, and me and my three brothers, no. The cop, he arrives in front of us, he does not even ask us for an identity card but if we have a residence card!” In the context of this incident at the border, Saïd recalls his father’s advice: “[I]n their eyes, you will always have the same face! So, work twice as hard as others to prove to them that you’re a better person.”

14We do not know the extent to which prejudice has also worked against Saïd with the gatekeepers of employment and educational programs, but he does suggest that being from Givors—which has a large population of Algerian descent and, reportedly, a reputation for lawlessness—may have kept him from gaining access to certain jobs. “I am ‘judged’ like them [i.e. lawbreakers] when I go looking for a job or that kind of thing, or when I say that I’m coming of such a city or district.” Gatekeepers of an educational institution told him “roughly, that they will refuse me because I am a student coming from Lyon. … supposedly, it would be a little annoying to make a file transfer.” Whether place-specific discrimination was involved in this case is unclear. We know only that a colleague told him, “[T]hey have no right to do that! It’s not a recruitment criterion!”

15Discrimination also appears to have limited Saïd’s romantic relations. “I went out with a girl, I tell you honestly, on her phone my name was Axel. (Silence). Because she told me literally that her father was a countryman from Saint-Andéol-le-Château up there, a lost corner, and that if he had known, he would have taken out the rifle and he would have shot! So, I discussed it with her, I talked a little with my father, and my father told me, ‘the best is to stop anyway!’” Here, in contrast to his general advice to “try twice as hard” to overcome prejudice, Saïd’s father counsels his son to cut his losses, thereby suggesting that some prejudice may never be overcome, or that not all attempts are worth the risk.

16Against the views of those who prefer a more ethnically limited French national football team, Saïd voices his support for a diverse league in which people of all origins are considered French, so long as they have the national identity card. “For me, France is the country of integration, there, it shows the beauty of French sport! It is that we can have all the origins, so we are all French, we all have nationality cards, we have all been integrated by France, we are all French.” Despite the prejudice he has endured, Saïd remains allegiant to the vision of France as an integrated team. In that the vision of integration he evokes is one that incorporates diversity, it acts as a corrective to more limited discourses of integration that “assume … the effacement of difference” (Millington 2011, 36). We may also presume that, as a coach, a teacher, and a facilitator of community activities, this is the vision of fraternity and equality that Saïd has attempted to share with younger generations.