In the era of advanced communication and transportation technology, immigrants and their descendents can be reunited with their ancestral land from where they or their forebears once were displaced. Visiting the ancestral land as tourists, or "roots tourism," is a major and easily accessible means through which people can recreate and retain the social ties with their ancestral communities. Roots tourism is loosely defined as a type of tourism in which ethnic minorities visit their ancestral lands to discover ethnic roots and culture. Despite the recent popularity of this type of tourism, many gaps remain in the research of roots tourism especially about its influence on ones' identity and sense of home among second generation of immigrants. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to explore the experiences of visiting ancestral land among second generation immigrants. For the purpose of this study, I focus on experiences of roots tourism among Chinese Americans. By investigating their motivation to visit their ancestral land, experiences and encounters in their ancestral land, and feelings toward the ancestral land and toward the United States after the visit, I attempt to explore how roots tourism influences ways in which second generation define and redefine who they are and where they belong under the transnationalism. Face-to-face, in-depth interviews with forty Chinese Americans revealed that, contrary to the idea that roots tourism generates strong feelings of belonging to one's ancestral land, a majority of the interviewees in this study felt foreign in their ancestral land. Although they felt a certain sense of connection to China or Taiwan, the feeling was overwhelmed by the differences in language, norms, class, culture, upbringing, citizenship, and family and gender composition. Analysis indicated that among forty interviewees, only three interviewees felt a sense of belonging to their ancestral society after their visit, and the rest of the interviewees realized their home is the United States. This study revealed the limitation of roots tourism as a tool to foster an identity and sense of home attached to the tourists' ancestral land. At the same time, the findings also suggest that roots tourism played a significant role to assist the interviewees to develop a positive sense of being Chinese Americans.

Depuis au moins trente ans, les descendants de l’immigration maghrébine sont, en France, l’objet d’interrogations scientifiques et politiques. De la mesure des degrés et rythmes d’intégration à l’identification de pratiques discriminatoires, la sociologie des descendants d’immigrés s’est concentrée sur l’étude des modes de vie et des trajectoires des membres de cette population vue depuis le pays de résidence, également pays de naissance. Pour compléter ces perspectives, ce travail propose d’étudier les liens matériels entretenus avec le pays d’origine des parents à travers une pratique apparemment mineure : les séjours de vacances passées au « bled », dans le pays de naissance de leurs parents – en l’occurrence l’Algérie. Ce travail interroge les enjeux d’appartenances qu’impliquent ces séjours vacanciers en les rapportant aux trajectoires et aux caractéristiques sociales des personnes rencontrées (classe sociale, sexe, âge et génération, situation familiale). Les appartenances ne sont pas appréhendées ici uniquement à travers des pratiques symboliques (comme la pratique de la langue du pays d’origine ou la religion des parents) ou par le biais de déclarations, mais à travers la description et l’analyse de pratiques matérielles mises en œuvre à l’occasion de ces séjours de vacances. Il apparaît alors que ces pratiques sont révélatrices de modes variés de relation aux « origines », entre pratiques mémorielles d’inscription dans une lignée familiale et/ou une histoire nationale, et entretien au présent de sociabilités familiales ou amicales à travers des pratiques de loisir partagées.La recherche s’appuie principalement sur une enquête qualitative menée à la fois en France (dans la région lyonnaise) et en Algérie (particulièrement dans la région de Sétif, première région d’émigration représentée à Lyon), réunissant des entretiens ethnographiques et des observations in situ des pratiques et des relations de vacances. Elle propose de combiner une ethnographie des pratiques présentes avec une perspective longitudinale sur l’évolution de ces pratiques, appréhendée du point de vue des individus et de leur famille, et du point de vue de l’Etat algérien. / For at least thirty years now, descendants of North African immigration in France have been at the centre of scientific and political debates. Defining degrees and rhythms of integration or identifying forms of discrimination, sociological analysis of the descendants of migrants has generally analysed life practices and social trajectories from the perspective of the country of birth and residence. This work proposes an alternative perspective by describing and analysing the material links that are maintained with the country of parental origin through an apparently minor phenomenon: holidays trips to the country of birth of their parents – in this case, Algeria.This thesis explores questions of affiliation and feelings of belonging that are raised in these trips, taking into account the various social backgrounds and trajectories (social class, sex, age and generation, family status) of the descendants who participated. Affiliations are not merely questioned through declarations or symbolical links to the country of origins (such as language or religion), but also through the description and analysis of material practices around holidays trips in Algeria. This analysis of practices reveals different ways of maintaining relations with the country of origin, between roots tourism, consisting of finding one’s place in family or national history, and leisure tourism, in which affiliations are based on current social relationships with family and/or friends.This research is based mainly on qualitative methods (interviews and observations) implemented both in France (around the city of Lyon) and Algeria (specifically in the area of Setif, the main region of origin for Algerian families in Lyon). The description and analysis of present-day practices is completed by a longitudinal perspective on the evolutions of these holidays practices. These evolutions are analysed both from the point of view of the descendants and their families, and the point of view of the source state of emigration, Algeria.