From: Rakesh Bhandari (bhandari@BERKELEY.EDU)
Date: Mon Nov 07 2005 - 01:22:36 EST
I've read a few chapters from this beautifully written book. Most highly recommended. Rakesh "The suffering of the immigrant" by Abdelmalek Sayad, Preface by Pierre Bourdieu, Translated by David Macey, Polity Press, 2004, 360 pages. Quatrième de couverture : This work examines the experience of immigration and the kind of suffering involved in living in a society and culture which is not one's own. Sayad unravels the contradictions stemming from the displaced existence of immigrants. These include the immense collective dishonesty through which immigration reproduces itself, where immigrants are compelled, out of respect for themselves and the group that allowed them to leave their country of origin, to play down the suffering of emigration and to encourage more of their compatriots to join them. These contradictions are present in the condition of the immigrant, away from his family, town, homeland, and weighed down by an uncomfortable guilt that results from being a victim of exclusion in a new society where he is seen merely as another member of the workforce. The author, Abdelmalek Sayad, was an Algerian scholar and close associate of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. After Sayad's death in 1988, Bourdieu undertook to assemble some of Sayad's writings for publication: he selected the material, organised it into a coherent text and wrote a preface. This book, a major contribution to our understanding of the condition of the immigrant, seeks to transform the reader's understanding of the issues surrounding immigration. -Compte-rendu d'Emmanuelle Saada, New York University, "Abdelmalek Sayad And The Double Absence : Toward a Total Sociology of Immigration " paru dans French Politics, Culture & Society, Vol. 18 · No. 1 · Spring 2000 : Résumé : "At the time of his death, the sociologist of immigration Abdelmalek Sayad (1933-1998) was putting the final touches on a collection of his principal articles-since published under the title La Double Absence. The publication of this collection provides, I think, a good occasion for introducing Sayad to the anglophone public, which to date has had almost no exposure to his work. In France, Sayad's sociology has been essential not only to the study of Algerian immigration, but to the understanding of migration as a "fait social total," a total social fact, which reveals the anthropological and political foundations of contemporary societies. The introduction of this exceptional work to American specialists of French studies is timely, moreover, because immigration and more recently, colonization have been among the most dynamic areas of research in the field in the past few years". -Compte-rendu paru sur le site : www.polity.co.uk "This is a work of outstanding originality on a topic of fundamental importance: the experience of immigration and the kind of suffering involved in living in a society and culture which is not one's own. With great sensitivity, the author unravels the contradictions stemming from the displaced existence of immigrants. These include the immense collective dishonesty through which immigration reproduces itself, where immigrants are compelled, out of respect for themselves and the group that allowed them to leave their country of origin, to play down the suffering of emigration and to encourage more of their compatriots to join them. These contradictions are present in the condition of the immigrant, away from his family, town, homeland, and weighed down by an uncomfortable guilt that results from being a victim of exclusion in a new society where he is seen merely as another member of the workforce. The author, Abdelmalek Sayad, was an Algerian scholar and close associate of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. After Sayad's death in 1988, Bourdieu undertook to assemble some of Sayad's writings for publication: he selected the material, organised it into a coherent text and wrote a preface. This book is a major contribution to our understanding of the condition of the immigrant and it will transform the reader's understanding of the issues surrounding immigration. Sayad's book will be widely used in courses on race, ethnicity, immigration and identity in sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, politics and geography".
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