De-colonization, immigration and integration (Study based on The Battle of Algiers and Living in Paradise)

Résumé du document

The Algerian war. It is only in 1999 that the French National Assembly voted to recognize it, after years during which it has been referred to as an “operation of restoring order”, whereas on the Algerian side it was referred as a “war of independence”, even as “a revolution”. Two peoples, two stances: French people for a ‘French Algeria', and Algerian people for an ‘Algerian Algeria'. Or at least this is the basic analysis that some uninformed people have done. However, things were far from being so simple and if it is true that a large majority of Algerian people claimed for the Independence of Algeria, some were willing that Algeria stay a part of France, or simply were unwilling to take part into the struggle. The main reason for this was that they wanted to be a part of the French society, as the Harkis who fought on the promise they would be able to go to France and have the French citizenship after the end of the fights. It seems that this people were willing to become members of the French society, a society still very appealing to them for its better conditions of living, its luxury and so and so forth … But could integration into the French society of this period really be possible? I will try to demonstrate that in the Post World War Two Europe, integration was something illusory, and will give the reasons for this.

Extraits

[...] But could integration into the French society of this period really be possible? I will try to demonstrate that in the Post World War Two Europe, integration was something illusory, and will give the reasons for this. After World War Two, Europe was a shattered continent which had to deal not only with material destructions and other war damage which had disastrous consequences on the economy, but also with a traumatized population. After so much suffering, everyone in Europe was legitimately aspiring to better days which would enable them to forget what has been the war; and actually such days were coming with Miraculous Fifties”, an expression used by William I. [...]

[...] Longman Films : - The Battle of Algiers, Dir. Gilo Pontecorvo, Algeria Italy - ivre au Paradis (Living in Paradise), Dir. Bourlem Guerdjou, French- Algeria- Belgium-Norway, 1998. [...]

[...] Visions of blood, of explosions, violence and terror went with them always” (p. 73). Here the text concerns a couple of two young French people, Jérôme and Sylvie, but every person living in France at this time could have felt this. Right in the middle of this chaos some persons still wanted to keep believing that thing would turn better, maybe were they thinking this because it could not become worse. Thus is Lakhdar, one of this numerous émigrés from North Africa come in France to help for the reconstruction of the nation after the war, in a time when immigration was little regulating and even encouraged, as it was perceived as a solution to the labor shortage, as explained by William I. [...]

[...] interrogation is a method only when it guarantees a reply. In the actual situation to succumb to human consideration only leads to hopeless chaos”, according to Colonel Mathieu. Here lies the reasoning which will allow justifying the torture for years to come. In the same way, when months after his arrival some journalists ask him about the use of torture, Colonel Mathieu only answers that it is the ‘duty' of the Army to win and that actually the only question is the following: France to remain in Algeria? [...]

[...] The first one I have chosen is The Battle of Algiers, Dir. Gilo Pontecorvo, Algeria Italy The second one is Vivre au Paradis (Living in Paradise), Dir. Bourlem Guerdjou, French-Algeria- Belgium-Norway Both films occur during the Algerian war, but the first one takes place in Algiers, essentially between 1954 and 1957 as it is focused on the sparking of hostilities and the transformations which have made of this claim for Independence an eight years war with hundreds of thousands of casualties, and with a common use of torture. [...]