Abstract
In Algerian Women and Diasporic Experience, Latefa Narriman Guemar combines interviews, surveys, and her own experience to provide a subjective approach to social ties and forms of belonging for elite Algerian women who left their country during the civil war (1992–2002). During the “black decade,” described as a “decade against women” (p. 51), women's social situation and rights became an issue of confrontation in the conflict between the National Liberation Front, which came to power following the country's independence, and the Islamic Salvation Front, which won the country's first legislative elections in 1991. Already affected by the introduction of the Family Code in 1984, which reduced them to second-class citizens, women saw their daily lives and prospects deteriorate: they were henceforth discouraged from occupying public space (and therefore from having a job or leisure activities) and were the victims of direct attacks (murders, kidnappings, rapes).
In this context of great instability, international mobility became a way of escaping persecution and stabilizing one's social situation. Guemar's book is built around the case study of Lamia who, unable to continue her studies at university, moved to the United Kingdom to escape her father's authority. One of the strengths of the book is that it highlights the continuum between public and private migration motives, which is not, however, integrated into migration policies. Guemar also emphasizes the economic, cultural, and social resources/constraints that overdetermine emigration opportunities. On arrival, South-to-North migration (to the United Kingdom, France, the United States, or Canada) presents significant risks of social and professional disadvantage. Finding accommodation, getting a job (consistent with their level of education) and escaping isolation are recurring issues in the migration experience. On this subject, the author could have taken a more materialist approach, going into greater detail on the circumstances of life in the country of settlement and carrying out a systematic comparison of migratory trajectories. They determine the chances of success of the migration project and have a major impact on the subjective analysis that the interviewees make of their situation, their plans to return and the bonds that they want to keep in their country. For example, Nadia, a doctor in chemistry in Algeria and a secondary school teacher in France, wants to return to her country of birth to set up her own medical business. Migration does not seem to have enabled her to achieve a satisfying professional situation given her social background.
Another central feature of the book is the study of the diaspora in terms of activism and feelings of belonging. Often feminists and in favor of the democratization of the Algerian political system, the interviewees claim to be close to the political culture of the countries to which they emigrate. The Hirak protests that took place in Algeria between 2019 and 2021 provided an opportunity for some of them to renew their commitment by demonstrating in their host country or sharing content online. However, this commitment is carried out with a great deal of suspicion. Developing links with compatriots exposes them to a return of social constraint: they fear that their behavior will be commented on, monitored, and reported back home. They also fear, and rightly so, that the fight for gender equality will be undermined, as it was at the time of Algeria's independence. However, the study of political views would have benefited from being underpinned with more objective and relational evidence. This means knowing how interviewees live rather than how they feel. Leaving Algeria enabled them to experience gender equality, which led them to polarize the opposition between Western cultural values and the cultural values of their country of origin. Without seeking to diminish the violence experienced before migration, one might wonder whether criticism of the religion and religious practices of Algerian women (whether immigrants or not) is not also a way of distinguishing oneself from other immigrants in the country of settlement. Therefore, moving abroad can also be a form of racial mobility that depends on the history of the country of immigration. This would help to understand how academics, journalists, and doctors in Algeria face reassignment to care jobs in their host country and why some of them specialize in household work as in the case of Khadija.
However, these are all areas that could be explored in future research. Perhaps the main strength of the Algerian Women and Diasporic Experience is that it opens up a whole new field of research into the political sociology of Algeria from an international perspective. This makes it an important work, which cannot be reduced to a sociology of migration, but instead operates at the intersection of several fields of social science such as gender and war studies or political participation research.