Azouz Begag
Azouz Begag, born in 1957 in Lyon, is a renowned writer, sociologist, economist, and politician. His parents emigrated from Algeria to France in 1949. Begag grew up in Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon, before moving to the city’s historic center. He faced racism and discrimination during his school years. Although he initially intended to return to Algeria, where he spent summers with his brothers, he decided to remain in France in his mid-twenties.
In 1980, Begag joined the Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities in Lyon and later became a researcher at CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique), one of Europe’s largest research organizations. He earned his PhD in economics from Université Lyon 2 in 1984 with his thesis titled L’Immigré et sa ville (The Immigrant and His City), which explored the mobility and identity of urban migrants. In 1988, he was a visiting professor at Cornell University in New York.
Beyond his academic work, Begag made his mark as a writer. In 1986, he published his autobiographical youth novel Le Gone du Chaâba (The Kid from the Shantytown), which humorously reflects on his experiences as the child of a guest worker and discusses double identities and the differences between migrant generations. The novel won numerous awards and was adapted into a film in 1998. Since then, Begag has authored over two dozen children’s books, novels, essays, and non-fiction works, particularly focusing on immigration and integration. His essay C’est quand il y en a beaucoup … (2011) addresses contemporary issues in French society based on his experiences as a sociologist and politician, while his novel Salam Ouessant (2012) continues to explore these themes.
In 2004, Begag became a member of the UN Economic and Social Council. From 2005 to 2007, he served as Associate Minister for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities under Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. Begag left the French government in 2007 to support François Bayrou and the Union pour la démocratie française. In 2009, he was selected as the candidate for the Mouvement démocrate in the 2010 regional elections in the Rhône-Alpes region. He was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 2005 and received the Ordre national du Mérite the same year. He is also a patron of the NGO Bibliothèques Sans Frontières, which supports libraries worldwide.
His latest book, Né pour partir (2023, Born to Leave), co-authored with Mamadou Sow, tells the story of a young Guinean who arrived in France illegally in 2016 as a minor. Begag lives in Paris.