People living in France from Asia face multifaceted racism, “trivialized” and rarely denounced, according to a study by sociologists published on Wednesday March 15, which shows that the Covid pandemic has accelerated a “awareness” of these discriminations.
The authors of this study – supported (financially) by the Defender of Rights – noted that “the daily experiences of discrimination (…) against Asians in France are rarely the subject of official reports” and “scientific research has until very recently made little effort to document (them)”.
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They therefore conducted, between 2020 and 2022 – i.e. at the time of the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic – in-depth biographical interviews with 32 young higher education graduates of Asian origin (newcomers or descendants migrants), aged 20 to 40, residing in France. These “investigated” 80% had a Bac + 5 level, and were from mainland China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan. Two-thirds were born on French soil.
“Do you smell the spring rolls”, “bowl of rice”…
Results: there is “specific features” experiences of anti-Asian racism, such as the “trivialization” et “ordinary character” of their manifestations – often expressed “in the form of humor”summarized one of the authors of the study, Simeng Wang, during a presentation to the press.
For the CNRS researcher, “public space, school and work” remain the places of production of racism “most frequently cited” by the respondents. Some of them, children of restaurateurs, tell of having suffered, at school, “Social contempt, with mockery from their comrades of the type “you smell the spring rolls”, “bowl of rice””, she detailed. Who daily fed a “feeling of shame”but may also have led to the forging of an attitude of “overcompensation and desire to succeed”.
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In terms of work, discrimination is also combined “with racial assignment” of the person, underlines the study, which cites the testimony of a graduate of a Parisian business school who “sent in for managerial positions but didn’t get an interview. The companies that called her systematically offered her positions as sales assistants”.
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“Model minority”
Other lesson: “Racism does not manifest itself in the same way according to gender”. So “Asian men are subject to stereotypes linked to their often devalued masculinity”. While women, including “femininity is fantasized”according to Simeng Wang, have to deal with “the intertwining of racism and sexism”in the world of work (sexual harassment) or in the public space – they are approached in the street by strangers.
In the face of experiences of racism, “the rate of reaction and appeal (by filing a complaint for example, editor’s note) is very low”, she points out. The researcher offers several explanations: “the label of “model minority” (“workers”, “discrete”, “strong in math”) which traps Asian people in positive stereotypes and prevents them from verbalizing”. And, among first-timers, “the legacy of Confucianism”the “poor language proficiency” and an “logic of survival”.
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However, stresses Simeng Wang, “the Covid-19 pandemic, which was” a moment of“paroxysmal expression” of this racism, played a role of “catalyst in awareness”individual or collective, discrimination, among the young people surveyed.
Different feelings
There followed more than “social media posts”a “media coverage” increase in these phenomena and the public authorities who are more interested in them, according to her. Finally, note: the situations are perceived differently depending on the origin of the people interviewed. Thus those “of Japanese descent” put themselves more “at a distance from anti-Asian racism, associating it with people from other Asian countries”.
On the other hand, for those “descendants of political refugees from Southeast Asia (boat people), the intersection between family history and colonial history predisposes them to reflections and debates on the social relations of race”according to the study.
