The displacements of the `shadow line

The term `clandestine' has grown prevalent over the two last decades as a way of describing illegal immigration, which looks more and more like an irrepressible process in the context of an anomic mondialization. The word carries the idea both of a disseminated and Janus-headed presence. In Fre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social Science Information 2008-12, Vol.47 (4), p.529-539
Main Author: Sinapi, Michèle
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
European history
France
Historical Development
Illegal immigration
Immigration
Migrants
Noncitizens
Political history
Refugees
Secrecy
Semantics
Social sciences
Stateless
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Summary:The term `clandestine' has grown prevalent over the two last decades as a way of describing illegal immigration, which looks more and more like an irrepressible process in the context of an anomic mondialization. The word carries the idea both of a disseminated and Janus-headed presence. In French, it is linked to the political history of European societies during the 19th and 20th centuries. This article attempts to analyze the semantic shifts that have occurred with respect to this period of history. It revisits the first time the word was used in France in its present-day sense: this was in 1938, in the decrees issued by the Daladier government. Le terme de `clandestin' s'est imposé dans les deux dernières décennies, pour désigner une immigration illégale, qui prend les aspects d'un processus irrépressible, dans le contexte d'une mondialisation anomique; il porte l'idée d'une présence disséminée et bi-frons, à la fois totalement visible et totalement immergée. En français, ce mot est lié à l'histoire politique des sociétés européennes au cours du 19ème et 20ème siècles. L'article tente une analyse des déplacements sémantiques du mot, au regard de cette histoire; il revient sur le moment où, en France, pour la première fois, le mot trouve son emploi actuel: en 1938, dans les `décrets-lois' du gouvernement Daladier.
ISSN:0539-0184
1461-7412
DOI:10.1177/0539018408096445