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2009年10月 月次レポート（モエデブ・ワエル フランス）
TUFS-ITP Monthly Report
By: Moedeb Ouael; INALCO, Paris, October 2009
This month was a very hard month for me since I arrived to Paris. I spent almost all my time in looking for accommodation. It's very difficult to find accommodation here in Paris and especially for a short time student like me. Two days ago there was a small reportage on the French television TF1 about the problems that students face in finding accommodation in Paris.
During this month I paid a visit to the Cite Nationale de l'Histoire de l'Immigration museum which is the first museum of its kind in France. The museum tries to show the contribution of immigration to the history of France. It's a kind of recognition of what well known immigrants have contributed to the prosperity of the country.
In France there is a tendency and a big debate on having a unified national identity. In other words all French citizens are French regardless to their ethnic backgrounds, colour or any other affiliation. This is what French schools try to convey to its pupils that there is no African French, Asian French, or Arab French; all are single French. But on the contrary; the museum shows that France had many histories and not a unified history for all French. Indeed, the wall texts in the museum show that there is more than one version of Frenchman. So the museum instead of matching with the main stream of having single French; is on the contrary emphasising the differences between French citizens.
Remarkably, the museum is housed in a building that is used to be part of the international colonial exposition of 1931. The museum throughout its buildings implicitly recognises the ugly side of French colonialism. The museum is also full of magazine covers showing famous immigrant figures such as Zidane the soccer player or Rachid Taha the French Algerian singer.
Starting from this month, I am working with two professors on my research. The first is Prof. Mayeur-Jaouen and the second is Prof. De Tinguy. The communication concerning my research is maintained by email with Prof. Mayeur-Jaouen after the first meeting. We agreed that I have to prepare a bibliography in French and that we can meet for a second time after I have done with that. She also advised me to work with Prof. De Tinguy or Prof. Stora as they are more relevant to my research. She has requested me to send her a bibliography of what I have read so far which I already did.
As for Prof. De Tinguy, we met once to discuss about not only my study plan here but also about the difficulties I faced in finding accommodation and how to solve that. She requested me to give her my proposal which I did during the meeting and I am waiting for her comments. We have also agreed that I have to consolidate a bibliography in the field, i.e. immigration from North Africa to France and to work on the field research later on. The communication with Prof De Tinguy is by email or phone. She calls me from time to time to check if the problem of accommodation is solved or not. She has also invited me to attend a one day seminar about immigration in Russia in the beginning of November. More details on this seminar will be available in the November report.