And French identity?
One can consider oneself Parisian more than French / one can identify more or less with the idea of a national identity
Thanh : Me, I don’t feel particularly French, I feel very Parisian, because I find that in Paris we are in an area where there is multiculturalism. French, no, because I find that the question of national identity does not resonate with me.
Cécile : When we go on vacation and people have not necessarily seen people of Asian origin, we feel very foreign to our own country.
Do you feel accepted as French?
Kévin : Many Teochew of my generation, if we went to Cambodia to live there, we wouldn’t say "We've returned to our country, we are at home." No, we would go as expatriates or tourists. I, for example, have already been to Cambodia. I considered myself a tourist there. I didn’t consider that it was my country of origin. I don’t have a country of origin. I would say that my origin is the Parisian suburbs.
Boulomsouk : And it’s a problem that encompasses all immigrations in France, unfortunately, it’s that they have trouble understanding that being French is not being white... I think there is an education problem, because education on this is not done at school. There may not be enough courses on colonization, on slavery, on many things, on the colonial policy of France, and to explain the history of all these migrations. Whereas it would precisely allow us to know where people come from and for what reasons they are there.
Thanh : And also to be accepted by France, or the idea we had of France, it was that one had to be French. And to be French, what did we have to do? We couldn’t change our appearance. We had to master the language, to do better than what was expected of a standard student. Because we had to earn our place as French people.
Diane : In my head, I don’t feel completely French. And I don’t think I will feel 100% French one day. I don’t think people accept us either, because genetically we are not the same.
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And it’s the same everywhere. As soon as there is someone who is not like you, you look at them differently. I know that in Vietnam, when traveling, people look at me differently because I am not from there. They see that I am a tourist, and I know that people allow themselves to say things in front of me in Vietnamese, thinking that I don’t understand. I understand what they say about me. That’s why I told you at the beginning that I don’t feel either here or there. We left, for them we are no longer from there, and for the people here, we are not from here.