Jane Freedman, avec Carrie Tarr, Women, Immigration and Identities in France, Oxford, Berg, 2000, 197 p.

This book is the first to address the relationship between gender and immigration in contemporary France and the political and personal issues that affect women of immigrant origin. Focusing on the social and political aspects of women’s lives, the book investigates how they are affected by racism and changes in citizenship laws and explores the strategies they use to combat exclusion through movements such as the ’sans-papiers’.

Authors go on to discuss ways in which immigrant women and their daughters negotiate their changing cultural identities in relation to their communities of origin and their positions in France, with reference to the Magrebhi family and attitudes to the Islamic headscarf.

These issues are further developed through analyses of women’s cultural production across a wide range of media, from the writing of Vietnamese women to ’Beur’ Filmmaking, including Yamina Benguigui’s highly acclaimed documentary Memoires d’Immigres.

Combining a range of case studies and practical data with a theoretical overview of the topic, this is an important reference work for anyone studying postcolonial France and the role of women within it.