Professors study Africans’ immigration to Paris, sexual habits
Two SMU professors, Carolyn Sargent and Dennis D. Cordell, went to Paris this summer to complete research on the Malian migrants.
“[We went to] provide suggestions for health professionals and politicians in France regarding the difficulties that Malian immigrants experience living in Paris, and the health risks and needs of women in particular,” Sargent said.
During the summer of 2001, Sargent and Cordell went to Paris for the first phase of their fieldwork, which initiated research to explore the documentation of French immigration policy between 1960 and 2001 and to investigate its impact on Malian migrant families.
Multiple partners
They also analyzed the consequences of 1993 anti-polygamy legislation on Malian family structure and reproductive goals and strategies.
According to their report published in March, they examined the influence of Islam on men’s and women’s acceptance of contraception and studied documentation of how Malian men and women have responded to French medical messages promoting fertility control.
Cordell, who has a doctorate in history of Africa from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree in demography, the statistical study of human populations, from the University of Montreal, interviewed Malian men, leaders of workers centers and imams, Muslim prayer leaders. Cordell said it was often easier for him, being a man, to talk to such people.
Sargent, a sociology and anthropology professor with a doctorate in social anthropology from the University of Michigan, has always been influenced by French and African cultures. She grew up in Vietnam, studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and lived six years in Benin in western Africa.
Her research focused on the life of women and how they manage their health and reproduction problems as well as relationships with their husbands. She interviewed women in different public hospitals and leaders of cultural and village associations.
But she also met the rector of the biggest mosque in Paris to talk about the way contraception is perceived in Islam.
“He is totally against contraception as a state policy,” Sargent said. “But many Malian couples have adopted certain methods, and a large number of women use the pill.”
Polygamy is an important issue since Malian people respect and practice it in their culture. In 1993, a series of laws called “Lois Pasqua” was created to reinforce the prohibition of polygamy and limit men to one wife only. But these laws were not really effective and appeared more as a symbolic reaction, said Jim Hollifield, director of the International Studies and Public Politics Center and political science professor at SMU.
In 2000, however, people practicing polygamy were given a year to change their status or they were not allowed to renew their residence permits. But these forced divorces do not mean so much for the immigrants.
“They divorce under the French law but not the religious law,” Sargent said.
The main problem is that they are required to live in different apartments.
Women’s issues
Malian women have evolved in a way that very often does not please their husbands. Social assistants from organizations such as the equivalent to the American Planned Parenthood influence and offer psychological, physical and cultural help to these women. They explain the rights women have in France, give information about pills and abortion and help create respect inside the couple.
That’s why, in many cases, Malian men do not want their wives to come to France. The husbands refuse to be blamed and change their position inside the family. They would rather go back and forth between the freedoms of France and the cultural liberties of their village in Africa.
Another issue concerns the women who cannot legalize their status. According to French laws, the first (and only) wife is the one who arrived first. In Africa, the first wife is the one who gets married first.
The research’s end-of-year report from March states that “the enforcement of the anti-polygamy laws is generating a category of abandoned, divorced and usually impoverished second wives who have been forced to find financial support and to establish an autonomous household in order to protect the residence permit of their husband and the first wife.”
And the question is even more complex to solve because immigrants know the immigration laws in details, as they are part of their survival,” Cordell said.
In the summer, Sargent and Cordell spent two months in France to deepen and complete their research, in association with the “University of Paris 5,” which is a research center.
“We are in the middle of our project, so we cannot discuss its ‘success’ yet,” Sargent said. “However, we are pleased that we have recently had an article accepted for publication in the journal “Social Science and Medicine,” which indicates that our research findings are considered relevant and timely.”
Malian History
A large number of Malian people who have been migrating to France since the 1960s live challenging lives as they are forced to adapt to immigration policies, health care and cultural tradition concerning polygamy, pills and abortion. The Malians come from the country of Mali, a country with a population of 11,008,518 located in northwest corner of Africa, southwest of Algeria.
There are 37,000 Malian people in France and 80 percent live in Paris. The first wave of African immigration occurred in the 1960s when France started to get labor from North and Saharan Africa, said Cordell, the associate dean for general education and a history professor at SMU. Men were coming to France with the idea to work and then go back to their countries.
They came young and single, planning to get married after returning to their villages. Other men from these villages would replace them in France.
But, in the 1970s, the immigration issue became more complicated and immigrants had harder times getting residence permits. Many Malian immigrants stayed in France in either illegal situations or by obtaining a legal status. In the same period, women started coming to France as migrant wives, Cordell said.
In the 1980s, single women slowly started migrating, resulting in an important impact on relations between men and women immigrants. Sargent and Cordell’s goal is to know how the French immigration laws affected the immigrants’ behaviors toward reproduction, gender relations and identity inside the family.
