Emmanuel Todd is a historian, demographer and French anthropologist who gained popularity owing to his work on the Soviet system; he had predicted its collapse years before it took place, and more recently, he had predicted collapse of the American Empire.
In ‘The fate of immigrants' published in 1994, the author adopts an anthropological approach to analyze the process of assimilation, segregation or otherwise- that occur during the encounter between indigenous and immigrant populations in host countries. It is appropriate here to clarify what is meant by "anthropological" - the range of values transmitted by family structure (central structure in anthropology). Emmanuel Todd looks at the phenomenon of immigration. The approach of the author is quite original in the scientific literature on this subject, which is often discussed in terms of political or social phenomena that they generate, rather than the micro-social phenomena as propounded by E. Todd.
Not to overlook the entire gamut and complexity of the problem it addresses, the author takes a historical approach, analyzing over time how the immigration problem has arisen. Indeed, immigration has been an increasing phenomenon in over half a century and facilitated many changes; however, it is not new. The author deals with the diachronic and comparative approach to the geographical point of view, focusing on four main zones of immigration he sees as "corporate control" throughout history: the United States, England, Germany and France.
The main problem that runs through this book aims to understand how differences in family structures, the least of all the micro- levels that can be examined, may explain the variability of macro-social phenomena that we observe in the countries cited as the region of the integration of immigrant populations.
We will see at first how family structures are generating "a priori metaphysical certainty" that permeate the individuals of a certain conception of humanity, this vision can be either universal or otherwise differentialist. Then, we examine the explanatory significance of such reasoning, which is a mapping process actually at work, when we seek to understand the current problems posed by the integration of immigrants in France, Europe or the United States, but also to address the issues raised by European integration in this area.
First, it is therefore necessary to trace the reasoning of the author and to understand the intellectual journey that leads him to study the family structures of anthropological characteristics of different populations, the overall explanation of the phenomena of rejection, segregation, or the opposite of assimilation of immigrants that can be observed and often raised much debate in the major immigration countries such as France, England, Germany or the United States.
The starting point of the analysis of Emmanuel Todd is the study of different family structures, observable in the micro-social level; the family is the nucleus of social life as Aristotle already said. The approach of the author is that of an anthropologist. It is justified by the need to analyze the inter-ethnic reality and not the representations that we have of these relationships in the countries where we meet the phenomena of mass immigration.
The author distinguishes two large families and family structures: symmetrical families and non-symmetrical families. The essential difference between these two types of structures can be observed in the inheritance rules.
Tags: Emmanuel Todd, ‘The fate of immigrants', collapse of the American Empire
[...] This is how the author presents a typology of double-entry main family structures that can be observed. It seems relevant to synthesize in a table where the different national models historically emphasized by the author can be located. Type of inheritance rules: symmetrised non symmetrised Relat Liberté ionsh NUCLEAR MODEL EQUALITY ABSOLUTE NUCLEAR MODEL ip Ex. China Ex. England Paren ts / child ren based on: authori COMMUNITY MODEL STRAIN MODEL ty Ex. Islam Ex. Germany France, according to the author, is quite difficult to place on the table because it has a great disparity from the standpoint of family structures. [...]
[...] The great majority of the pages of the book are devoted to the description of phenomena -this term integration is a generic term covering many cases, the total assimilation of one group by another ethnic segregation - through time and space, and their description by the reasoning of the prism we just summarize: the author is concerned, for each country, the type of family structure characterizing both host populations and they welcomed immigrants over the centuries, and it describes the psychological processes that have determined, on both sides, the real conditions of their meeting and their cohabitation. We can of course not summarize here the wealth of the author's analysis, and that is also not essential to understand his reasoning. This is why it is enough to evoke a synthesis of the conclusions that the author draws from the study of a specific case in which the author is extensively focuses: that of France, "territory of universal man "in his own words. [...]
[...] The author distinguishes two families of family structures: symmetrised families and families non symmetrized. The essential difference between these two types of structures can be observed in inheritance rules. It is whether the rules are equal or unequal, that is to say, whether or not they prefer some other child in the allocation of property upon the death of father. Within these two main categories, there are different models. The symmetrized families can thus be restricted to male symmetry (where only male individuals have an equal inheritance) or generalized symmetry (in this case, the brothers and sisters are considered equal). [...]
[...] The fate of immigrants, Emmanuel Todd Emmanuel Todd is a historian, demographer and French anthropologist. This was made famous thanks to his work on the Soviet system he predicted the collapse of years before it took place, and more recently on the American Empire, in which he announced the same fate. In The fate of immigrants, published in 1994, the author takes an anthropological look to analyze the assimilation process -or unlike ségrégation- that take place during the meeting between immigrant and indigenous populations in the host countries. [...]
[...] Reality is always much more complex than the model developed, it is a problem inherent in all science and perhaps more social science. But this distance should not be too large, or risk jeopardizing the credibility of what is stated. Here, one may wonder whether the distinctions (mainly anthropological) that the author poses as fundamental still are today. Emmanuel Todd gives to what he sees as "innate" major importance (if not exclusively) in how different groups are perceived self. But one wonders if the acquis, ie the elements from the network socialization, does not play an equally important role. [...]
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