"The Suffering of the Migrant" Abdelmalek Sayad (preface by Pierre Bourdieu)

What a nice book :) it didn't happen to me for a long time to be so impressed by a "social science a.k.a sociology" book.

At the beginning when people discussed the book I hadn't read it but what most of them commented on was that the book is too much exaggerated and that it is not possible immigrants to suffer mentally and physically at such a great extend. After all, immigration be it for studying, practicing profession or, as it is in the book, being a guest worker, is personal choice. What is more, motives for immigration are as numerous as people's music preferences.

Having in mind Bourdieu's scientific negativism about the social world, I thought that the focus of the book would be more or less also focused only on the negative aspect of immigration and thus maybe a bit exaggerated BUT after reading the book I was struck.

Sayad displayed immigrants' feelings and thoughts so objectively and precisely that I cannot say anything else than just admire his book. I think that the book holds true not only for legal guest immigrant workers or illegal ones - everyone who's been an immigrant for a longer period of time had at some point in time at least one of the thoughts revealed in the book. And only those who haven't experienced anything about living in a different country can say it is exaggerated or subjective.

This is my personal opinion...however...who knows? Maybe I have experienced the bitter part of immigration, despite coming as a legal foreign student :)

Sayad is an Algerian who lived for quite a long time in France and his story is actually about Algerian migrants in France...disturbing picture...surely a lot has to be done in France on migration and integration issues...

"How bitter you can be, my country, when one dreams of leaving you. And how desirable you are, oh France, before one knows you! All because our village is full of France and nothing but France- France is all people talk about. From our village, we have more people in France than in the village." A. Sayad

“No, they never explained to us what France was really like before we got to know it. We see them coming home, they are all well dressed, they bring back full suitcases, with money in their pockets, we see them spending that money without even thinking about it; they are handsome, they are fat” A. Sayad

“You come to France for a while, you act as though you were here for a while, but, year after year, then it’s five years, then ten years, then twenty years, and then you retire! When you add it up it’s your whole life.” A. Sayad

“None of the emigrants interviewed had attempted or had been tempted to try to find work in an Algerian town.” A. Sayad à funny ah?

“It’s not only the ‘behavior of a holiday-maker’ that the emigrant introduces into his group. He also introduces a great number of attitudes imbued with a calculating spirit and the economic and social individualism that goes with it, and these have more serious implications.” A. Sayad

“When we speak of the emigration of families, we are therefore dealing with assimilation, no matter what terms of euphemistic variants (adaptation, integration, insertion etc.) are used to designate that social reality.” A. Sayad

“What one vision of the phenomenon of immigration sees as a ‘cost’ can be seen as a ‘benefit’ by another and conversely.” A. Sayad

“When I am alone, I think about it all, I think everything over, I examine it from every point of view. I try to understand; I try to understand how things happen. Do the things that happen really depend on me, or do they happen by themselves?”