Abstract
This chapter discusses the effects the inaccurate term ‘illegal’ or ‘clandestine’ immigration has on the public response to migration at large. Taking as example two French graphic novels typical of the ‘comics journalism’ (Dabitch et al., Immigrants. Paris: Futuropolis, 2010) genre, Droit du sol by Charles Masson and Clandestino by Aurel, the chapter focuses on the ways in which these works’ intermediality quality allows them to contest assumptions and common discourses around illegality. Moreover, Pruteanu analyses the importance of the image of the author as both reporter and witness of the facts, linking Masson and Aurel’s works to the biofictional genre which Rosalia Baena calls ‘life writings’ (Transculturing Auto/Biography: Forms of Life Writing. London: Routledge, 2014).
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Notes
- 1.
Translation belongs to Valérie Amiraux who quotes it in her article “Crisis and New Challenges? French Republicanism Featuring Multiculturalism”, in Alessandro Silj (dir.), European Multiculturalism Revisited (London: Zed Books, 2010, p. 94): “Le citoyen n’est pas un individu concret, on ne rencontre pas le citoyen, c’est un sujet de droit”.
- 2.
According to the same study by Düvell, each aspect can be regular or irregular and various combinations are possible, for example, either a person has clandestinely and without authorisation crossed the border of a nation state and is or is not working; or a person who has legally stayed in a given country fails to depart in accordance with the time limit set in his or her visa, overstays, and is or is not working; or a person who is staying in a given country legally is taking up employment in breach of visa regulations and is thereby jeopardising their immigration status; or a person is born to illegal immigrants and becomes an illegal immigrant him or herself by birth without ever having crossed an international border (Social Science Information, 47, no. 4, Dec 2008, p. 487).
- 3.
“Les mots ne servent pas seulement à nommer, qualifier, ou décrire. Ils permettent aussi de fonder les actions et d’orienter les politiques. En désignant comme ‘clandestins’ les étrangers en situation irrégulière sur le territoire français, on les classe dans une catégorie qui mobilise des images—le travailleur entre illégalement dans le pays et justifie des mesures—pour prévenir et réprimer cet état de fait—images et mesures qui sont en quelque sorte incluses dans la façon même de dire les choses” (Didier Fassin, quoted by Mireille Rosello , p. 137).
- 4.
“C’est donc à partir des années 1880 que la figure du reporter , issue de la rubrique des faits divers, commence d’agréger également la figure du correspondant—de guerre ou spécial—celle d’un journaliste qui explore différentes dimensions du monde social et revendique une posture d’écrivain, un style littéraire.”
- 5.
In the French administration, a department is a government level below the national one. Ninety-six departments are in metropolitan France while 5 others, including Mayotte , are overseas departments. Mayotte’s department status is still very recent (2011) and the region remains by far the poorest in France.
- 6.
“Ce livre est dédié à Patrice qui nous a quittés au milieu de ce travail, un matin, sur son canapé à Tsingoni, dans le centre de Mayotte . Au même instant, sur une autre île. Je dessinais son personnage. Il nous manque.” N.A. All translations from the graphic novels in this text are mine.
- 7.
“Si les mises en scène sont fictives, les situations rapportées ainsi que la plupart des personnages de la BD sont inspirés de faits avérés et de personnes réelles, dont les propos sont ici retranscrits” (Clandestino ).
- 8.
Since 1996, French-language writer Régine Robin has adjudicated the term biofiction with the publication of her collections of stories L’immense fatigue des pierres. Biofictions, with each story featuring a fact or event drawn from daily life. Robin, noticing that cultural and geographical boundaries were becoming less distinct, starts pondering, according to Martha Broom, on what the twenty-first-century identity challenges will be: “In each biofiction she traces indistinct, individual quests where one seeks to reclaim their identity from behind the paralyzing silence of History. As the genre ‘biofiction’ indicates, Robin unites both history and imagination in the reconstruction of identities for only the powers of imagination can break down the [sic] History’s walls of silence” (“Constructing an Identity of Relation”, p. 335).
- 9.
“The presence of migrants on the European continent is a European political crisis, not a refugee and migrant crisis” (“Europe Risks Failure on Migration”, Aug 20th, 2018). https://www.ft.com/content/e45c4b5e-9fcc-11e8-85da-eeb7a9ce36e4
- 10.
France’s National Assembly voted for restricting the territorial principle in Mayotte on July 26, 2018, with a majority of 47 votes for and 19 against. Tunisian-born deputy, Sonia Krimi, spoke after the vote about this measure’s potential of worsening the debate over “those horrible foreigners, of which I am one, who come only to take advantage”. https://www.france24.com/fr/20180726-france-afrique-mayotte-comores-vote-assemblee-deputes-droit-sol-limite-immigration
- 11.
- 12.
On Dec. 16, 2005, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (H.R. 4437) passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 239 to 182. This legislation, sponsored by Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Homeland Security Chairman Peter King(R-NY), seeks to address illegal immigration by strengthening interior enforcement of immigration laws and enacting additional border security measures. Provisions to establish a guest worker programme are not included in this legislation.
- 13.
“Moi, je rêve simplement d’avoir un téléphone portable pour appeler ma mère et lui dire que je suis arrivée en France” (Droit du sol , 7).
- 14.
“Dire qu’en France tu peux être payé même quand tu travailles pas…” (Droit du sol , 7).
- 15.
“En métropole oui, mais rêve pas! Ici c’est Mayotte. Les cadeaux c’est pas pour nous! À nous, il nous reste les rêves et le travail” (Droit du sol , 7).
- 16.
“Vos gueules!” (id.).
- 17.
“Que c’est beau!” (ibid.).
- 18.
“Et les routes sont bonnes, c’est pas le Tiers-Monde. Ça fait penser à Madagascar, mais avec des infrastructures correctes: pas de routes défoncées. Ici tout fonctionne. Vive la France! Quel bonheur!” (Droit du sol , 25).
- 19.
“L’intérêt de cet album instructif tient à ses personnages, à leur fragilité et au mouvement des existences croquées par Charles Masson” (Harzoune 2009, p. 201).
- 20.
“MAIS JE SUIS UNE CLANDESTINE!” capital letters in original text, DS, 259.
- 21.
“Voilà, mon petit Brice Saïd, tu es né sur le sol français. Si tu veux, tu pourras être Président de la République française!” (Droit du sol , 219).
- 22.
“Si on t’en laisse la possibilité et le temps” (id.).
- 23.
“La description de ce néo-esclavagisme légalisé par l’Europe par l’un de ses signataires” (Clandestino , 19).
- 24.
“Soy una raya en el mar / Fantasma en la ciudad / M i vida va prohibida / Dice la autoridad.”
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Pruteanu, S.E. (2020). Framing the Immigration Discourse and Drawing the Citizen: Concrete Representations of the “Migration Crisis” in Comics Journalism. In: Mielusel, R., Pruteanu, S. (eds) Citizenship and Belonging in France and North America. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30158-3_12
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