Rapport à l’espace, rapport à l’autre : constructions des discours sur l’immigration dans la banlieue lavalloise
This master's thesis addresses citizen discourses, regarding ethnocultural otherness in suburban neighborhood of Laval. To do so, I focus on the specific context of the city of Laval to detangle the relations between space and ethnocultural otherness from the perspective of the inhabitants. This research, thus standing at the crossroads of ethnic studies, social geography and urban studies, enables an anchoring of the representation of ethnocultural diversity in both the social and physical spaces of the suburb. Within this framework, the discourses of the Lavallois, coming from two neighbourhoods each characterized by different processes of urban development and ethnic diversification are analyzed. For a majority of our sample, the recent changes in the urban landscape attest of a diversification in the inhabited space that generally evokes a negative response. The presence of ethnocultural otherness in the public and private spaces of Laval is also linked to a perceived degradation of the social bond in their community. At the study's conclusion, I argue that the perception of immigrants is intertwined in the recent urban changes occurring in the city of Laval. As such, immigrants are directly associated with the loss of the idealized suburban branding.
Laval immigration discours suburb space ethnicity discourse citizenship inhabited space