Religion and the Negotiation of the Boundary between Majority and Minority in Québec: Discourses of Young Muslims in Montréal CÉGEPs

The authors point out that tensions between youth immigrants’ identification and the perceived identity of the “majority group” is evident in greater Montreal-area schools, where a plurality of ethno-cultural or religious affiliations often converge and where racism and Islamophobia are becoming major social issues. The authors explore the discourses of “minoritized” Muslim youth pertaining to their perceived boundaries with respect to the majority group, considering the power relations at play. Ten qualitative interviews with Muslim youth born to immigrant parents and studying in colleges (CEGEPs) in the Montreal region are analyzed. The authors use typological analysis to reveal the main positions with regard to the majority group, which encompass ways of negotiating the border between the “Us” and “Them,” influenced by the process of secularism, arising from acceptance, contestation, or even a sort of exacerbation of racializing categorization.

Education Sciences

Vol. 8

no. 4

1-23

December 2018

en