L’intégration par l’économique. La déqualification des réfugiés afghans

This article analyses the downgrading process of Afghan men recognized as refugees in France. It is based on biographical interviews and observations conducted in training rooms of a AFPA (Agence nationale pour la formation professionnelle des adultes) center located in the Paris region alongside a group recruited by McDonald’s as part of a public-private professional insertion program specifically dedicated to refugees. It shows how the injunctions to cultural adaptation are entangled with a socializing process to “corporate norms” peculiar to a subordinate workforce. While the refugees’ emigration experience falls into social relations of class and race, the diverse character of the trajectories within this group reveals contrasting educational and professional aspirations and gives meaning to the different ways the struggle against the enforcement of work which results in deskilling takes place, a process which is eminently antagonistic. JEL : J61, M53