Professional identity and religious identity. Inter-minority solidarity among future social workers

Abstract

In Brussels - a city subject to duality from a socioeconomic point of view and with ethnic segregation from an educational perspective - a proportion of its youth are characterised by cultural heterogeneity resulting from (past and present) migratory pathways, which may be at the origin of asserted religiousness. Based on approximately twenty interviews with future social workers, I have brought out a cross-cutting "perspective of minorities" (according to C. Guillaumin), of young descendents of sub-Saharan and north African immigrants, both Catholic and Muslim. Whether it is the image of the "veiled woman", the circulation of the statement "I am Charlie" or the compatibility between religious faith and social work, the corpus of interviews brings out inter-minority solidarity built as a counterpoint to internalised hegemonic rhetoric.