Elizabeth Onasch

Northwestern University, Illinois, USA

Racialized Access to the Nation: French Integration Programs

Elizabeth Onasch’s dissertation examines the formulation, dissemination, and reception of national identity in integration programs for non-European Union migrants in France.  The project seeks to identify processes of racialization within the programs and explore the connections between these contemporary processes and historical iterations of the relationship between the concepts of race and nation. To this end, the dissertation draws comparisons between the experiences of migrants from different regions with varying historical relationships to France, as well as considers the development of the French integration programs within the broader context of European Union governance. The project relies upon interviews with program participants, secondary historical sources, and content analysis of program materials and integration program legislation at the French and EU level.