Nationalisme d'Etat et nationalisme ordinaire en Arabie Saoudite : la nation saoudienne et ses immigrés

Abstract

Nationalisme d'État et nationalisme ordinaire en Arabie Saoudite : la nation saoudienne et ses immigrés L E NATIONALISME D'ÉTAT SAOUDIEN a centré sur le référent islamique une construction nationale singulière. Entre construction de soi et relation à l'autre, l'État a travaillé à homogénéiser la nation saoudienne sur une base ethnique et religieuse en excluant du corps politique et social les millions de travailleurs étrangers « importés » pour assurer le développement économique du pays. L'hypothèse centrale de cette contribution est qu'en dépit de la violence à la fois réelle et symbolique dont font l'objet les étrangers en Arabie Saoudite, ces derniers participent à la reproduction d'une identité nationale saoudienne « informelle » ou « banale » liée aux conditions économiques et culturelles de la modernité et de la mondialisation, notamment à travers les pratiques de consommation des jeunes urbains 1. Loin d'être une « subversion » politisée du nationalisme d'État, ce nationalisme ordinaire des classes moyennes urbaines atténue dans une certaine mesure les frontières sociales et symboliques entre citoyens et étrangers. L'urbanisation, 1. L'objet de cet article n'est assurément pas de minimiser la « dépendance structurelle » voire la violence structurelle qui caractérise le rapport instauré entre immigrants et nationaux par le système de l'immigration de main d'oeuvre en Arabie Saoudite. Voir notamment sur ce point Anh Nga Longva, « Keeping Migrant Workers in Check :

Political economy of immigration policy in GCC countries

“…Third, we have developed a general model aimed at describing the limited effectiveness of the Kafala sponsorship system and its weak effect on the “flow control” of immigrants. Hence, it does not account for the emergence of the “stock control” since the 1990s through “anti‐integration” policies devoted to preventing the incorporation of migrant workers in host societies (Longva, 2005; Thiollet, 2010). Modelling the endogeneity of “stock control” policies driven by “flow control” measures is an interesting avenue for further theoretical research.…”

“…Most GCC countries witnessed an increase in the number of “dependents” and the emergence of second and third generation expatriates in the past decades, of migrant communities well entrenched in the Gulf but missing long term statuses (Gardner, 2011). Interestingly, since the 1990s, the failure of controlling the migrant flows has been compensated by a “stock control” through “anti‐integration” policies aimed at preventing the settlement and incorporation of migrant workers in host societies (Longva, 2005; Thiollet, 2010). These antisettlement measures were class‐based, particularly targeting low‐skilled migrants, while professionals and highly skilled workers were offered more favorable socioeconomic rights 5…”

Cosmopolitanism in exclusionary contexts

“…While, in informal contexts, Saudi and Emirati citizens occasionally opt for "Western" clothing, in public places they tend to wear standardised "national" dress: for women, the 'abāya (a black cloak) and a headscarf which comes in various shapes; for men, the kandūra or dishdasha in the UAE, or thawb in Saudi Arabia (a white full-length robe), the shmāgh (a chequered headdress fashioned from a cloth or "scarf") or the ghutra (a similar, albeit white, headdress), held in place by the ʿiqāl (a cord, usually black, placed on top of the headdress). The historical construction of national dress as integral to national identity has been part of nation-building processes and state-sponsored narratives across the region (Akinci, 2019;AlMutawa, 2016;Thiollet, 2010).…”

“…While malls, located on the city's main streets and thoroughfares, are bigger places of encounter on which people coming from various neighbourhoods converge, smaller convenience stores, too, act as a catalyst for social interactions in the urban space. In terms of perception of the self and of others, shopping malls specifically, however, perform a particular function as shared places that convey a sense of belonging to Gulf modernity (Thiollet, 2010).…”