Children, Law, and International Relations between France and Algeria after 1962

FAIN: FEL-282626-22

Judith Surkis
Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8559)

Research and writing leading to a book on the cultural history of postcolonial custody disputes over children with French and Algerian parents during the 1970s and 1980s.

In the wake of Algerian decolonization, fierce custody battles over thousands of Franco-Algerian children pit migrant Algerian fathers against the children’s French mothers. These family affairs became affairs of state, captivating publics on both sides of the Mediterranean in the 1970s and 80s. My cultural history of postcolonial children elucidates how these family disputes replicated geopolitical conflicts on a smaller scale. Weaving together family history with international relations, I offer new insight into how France’s difficult “divorce” from Algeria after 1962 reverberated across time and through individual lives. Freighted with conflicting political and cultural meanings, the fate of binational children came to represent the future of citizenship, secularism and fanaticism, national development and international cooperation, feminism and human rights. These concerns continue to shape debates over the legal and cultural belonging of so called migrant youth in France today.

Associated Products

Custody Battles and the Politics of Franco-Algerian Divorce, 1962-1992 (Article)
Title: Custody Battles and the Politics of Franco-Algerian Divorce, 1962-1992
Title: Custody Battles and the Politics of Franco-Algerian Divorce, 1962-1992
Author: Judith Surkis
Author: Judith Surkis
Abstract: Based on previously untapped archives, this article explores Franco-Algerian custody battles in order to offer a new perspective on the economic, political, and emotional history of decolonization. These disputes both personi!ed and gendered contests over sovereignty in the wake of the 1970s economic crisis: French courts granted the custody of children to the mothers, while Algerian law, partially based on Muslim law, privileged the fathers. Divorce and custody became subjects of sentimental concern and intensive diplomatic negotiation at the highest state levels. Drawing on an exemplary case, the article shows how French and Algerian law courts, feminists and migrants’ rights activists, diplomats and journalists debated these cases, amplifying their symbolic resonance over time. Family disputes replicated geopolitical contests on a smaller scale and provoked new ones in turn, as children’s futures became freighted with political as well as personal meaning. In the process, conceptions of economic and national, religious and gender difference on both sides of the Mediterranean became affectively entwined. Custody cases that erupted over two decades reveal the troubled “divorce” between the two countries as an ongoing emotional, economic, and legal battle!eld.
Abstract: Based on previously untapped archives, this article explores Franco-Algerian custody battles in order to offer a new perspective on the economic, political, and emotional history of decolonization. These disputes both personi!ed and gendered contests over sovereignty in the wake of the 1970s economic crisis: French courts granted the custody of children to the mothers, while Algerian law, partially based on Muslim law, privileged the fathers. Divorce and custody became subjects of sentimental concern and intensive diplomatic negotiation at the highest state levels. Drawing on an exemplary case, the article shows how French and Algerian law courts, feminists and migrants’ rights activists, diplomats and journalists debated these cases, amplifying their symbolic resonance over time. Family disputes replicated geopolitical contests on a smaller scale and provoked new ones in turn, as children’s futures became freighted with political as well as personal meaning. In the process, conceptions of economic and national, religious and gender difference on both sides of the Mediterranean became affectively entwined. Custody cases that erupted over two decades reveal the troubled “divorce” between the two countries as an ongoing emotional, economic, and legal battle!eld.
Year: 2020
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/722392
Primary URL: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/722392
Primary URL Description: Journal of Modern History Website
Primary URL Description: Journal of Modern History Website
Access Model: Subscription
Access Model: Subscription
Format: Journal
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Journal of Modern History
Periodical Title: Journal of Modern History
Publisher: Journal of Modern History
Publisher: Journal of Modern History

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