Ethnic Relations and Public Debate in Corsica
In the past few years, regular confrontations have been occurring in Corsica between young people whose main mode of social differentiation is based on ethnicity. These conflicts are frequently mentioned in public debate in France, and feed the notion of a link between Corsican nationalism and racism. Corsica is thus considered in a generalizing, if not stigmatizing, way. However, such a dark picture of interethnic relations should be nuanced in regard to cities such as Ajaccio and Bastia. In Ajaccio it appears that there is a kind of conservative racism that echoes the hardships of the local middle-class facing globalization, while in greater Bastia, studies focusing on interethnic relations reveal a process of resistance against people of North African descent participating actively in the life of the city.