Abstract :
[en] The literature indicates that girls of immigrant origin have a more positive relationship with the school institution than boys of the same origin. This is reflected in better academic results and a higher graduation rate as well as lower dropout and repetition rates than boys. The literature explains these findings by the family environment of immigrant children, which is characterized by a gendered education and social control that is particularly strong for girls. In this respect, the literature indicates that girls' desire for emancipation could be a central cause of their success at school. For them, school is a means of "freeing” themselves from a restrictive family environment. This cause of success, often mentioned but little developed, is precisely the object of this research : what role does the desire for emancipation play in the academic success of girls of immigrant origin ?
A qualitative approach was chosen to embrace the complexity of the subject, which covers educational and socio-anthropological aspects. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with young Muslim women of immigrant origin in higher education in French-speaking Belgium. As methodological tools, we used the biographical method, which makes it possible to understand the meaning that the participants give to their lives, and ethnopsychology, which sheds light on the cultural context of the comments collected. Several vigilances were also taken into account, such as the researcher's gaze, the proximity of the researcher to the subject and the potential "gender bias".
The hypothesis drawn from the literature according to which the desire for emancipation would constitute an explanatory cause for academic success of immigrant girls is not confirmed by our results : the young women interviewed are not particularly motivated by a desire to emancipate themselves from their environment, this being more the case with their mothers. In fact, mothers have generally lived in a traditional family environment that did not encourage girls to study. Parents, especially mothers, encourage girls to succeed and to be independent. Girls are in line with these incentives and express a strong desire for independence. In addition to the desire for independence, there is a marked desire for social ascension (to earn a good living and to be considered socially) as well as an emancipation in terms of identity, which translates into an upheaval of the relationship to the culture of origin and to religion.
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