ELGHORBA PERSPECTIVES: THE VOICE OF THE EMIGRANT-IMMIGRANT IN THE WORK OF ABDELMALEK SAYAD

Abstract

The current article presents brief results of discussions about the work and importance of sociologist Abdelmalek Sayad for the sociology of migration. Section 1 considers the context of his work's production: the French colonization of Algeria and the resulting Algerian migratory flows towards France. Sections 2 and 3 reflect on the methodology used by the sociologist, the subjectivity of immigrants, life stories and biographies, and sources utilized by Sayad within the social and historical conditions of this emigration-immigration. Contact networks allowed for understanding the migratory phenomenon not as a rupture through displacement, but as a continuity involving the relationship between states, societies, and individuals. Sayad inverted the sociological point of view: by introducing the idea that migratory studies should include the entire process from departure to the immigrant's conditions of stay, and also how ties between the emigrant and their family are maintained in the country of origin.