Enfants et adolescents mixtes : une identité spécifique?

In: Enfance, Band 43, Heft 3, S. 303-322

Abstract

The identity question is uppermost in Europe today, where « monolingualism » and cc monoculturalism » are the received norm. Little has been said, however, about the identities produced in families in which fathers and mothers come from different countries.
Thirty-two binational children living in France or Germany are presented here. The author studies the objective factors of their education as well as the experience of biculturalism described by « mixed » teenagers.
While bilingualism is theoretically the most distinctive element of the children's « dual identity », real conditions vary vastly according to the social standing in a given country of foreign groups and the languages they speak. Not all binational families have the same opportunities for raising their children bilingually. The question thus arises as to whether someone can be bicultural without being bilingual.
The children's bilingualism and biculturalism are important stakes : for the parents, they represent the survival of their own language-and-culture- linked identities. As for the children, even before knowing if bilingualism is important to themselves, they know it is of great value to their parents. When they consider themselves bilingual, they feel proud but when they do not, they express regret and sometimes resentment.
A special feeling of identity appears to exist among mixed children though in different ways. However, a child is always a stake between hisjher parents and their kin; the mixed child illustrates the general human condition, that of all individuals, who have to build their « identity » out of a double or multiple heritage.