Aletheia
Print version ISSN 1413-0394
Abstract
KOZAKAI, Toshiaki and WOLTER, Rafael Pecly. Traps of multiculturalism: sociopsychological analysis on the french way of foreigners integration. Aletheia [online]. 2007, n.26, pp.11-26. ISSN 1413-0394.
This article proposes a critical analysis on multiculturalism. The latter is founded on an erroneous vision of cultural identity, which is in fact an empty box susceptible to receive, in theory, any content. Culture should not be considered as a substance but a relational concept. However, universalism has also its own shortcomings. The notion of identity implies in itself a movement of differentiation. The French way of integration that does not allow the trace of origin has a structural difficulty as well for the immigrants who should abandon their culture as for the natives who risk to feel the assimilation of foreigners as an intrusion into their proper identity. We propose to substitute a logic of identification to the logic of identity in order to surpass the current debate on multiculturalism.
Keywords : Acculturation; Cultural identity; Multiculturalism; Universalism; France.