| This doctoral thesis explores the construction of linguistic identities in migrants' trajectories and the integration process of multilingual African migrants whose life courses are contextualized by the multiple and diversified Francophone spaces which Sub-Saharan Africa, mainland France and New Brunswick's Acadie represent. It is based on a comparative approach aimed at understanding how, and to what extent, migrants from Black Africa are integrated into each specific settlement context of New Brunswick's Acadie and France, and whether or not their integration validates their Francophone identity and competencies. Further, the research is informed by a hermeneutic qualitative perspective, which places primary importance on the lived experiences of individuals and the historicity of the social processes and phenomena underlying their experiences. Using this perspective, the study presents a sociolinguistic reading of life histories and linguistic biographies of the migrants interviewed. This approach makes it possible to interpret the experiences articulated in their comments, and to define the impact of reconfigurations generated by their contact with sociolinguistic and sociocultural environments different from those in which they first established themselves as individual speakers. |
