From observations made in northern Italy, in the area of Gorizia and Trieste, involving eight French-speaking immigrants from Africa and in the light of the hypothesis proposed by Le Page and Tabouret-Keller (1985: 14), who consider linguistic behaviour as a series of acts of identity through which “people reveal both their personal identity and their search for social roles”, we sought to study the immigrants’ plural identities.
It was noted that the respondents went to great lengths to conserve both their own vernacular, that is to say their “language of the heart” (Lüdi, 1995: 221), and their French, which undoubtedly forms part of their identity and represents a badge of recognition. In parallel, their Italian, of which, generally, they have a good command, constitutes the language of integration that allows them to weave social ties, to better understand the culture of the host country and, thus, to feel an integral part of it.
Likewise, the French-Italian code-switching, employed in communication within the group, becomes the badge of their new identity and their belonging to the community of French-speaking Africans in Italy.
