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Contrary to what takes place in literary studies, sociology has up to now shown little interest in intellectuals who adopt a working language different from their own mother tongues. The case of intellectuals from North Africa and the Middle East working in French in Paris is the subject of this article, which seeks to cast some light on the socio-historical conditions underlying their scientific bilingualsm. In particular, it shows how an early knowledge of French, acquired in their home countries, allowed them to integrate French academic circles. The article retraces the itineraries of language learning of these Arab intellectuals, by taking into consideration both the broad historical context (the influence of French culture during colonial times) and a sociological approach pointing to the fact that, depending on the country, Francophony has concerned different social groups. Our analysis, however, aims to go further than the notion of 'linguistic colonialism'. Where languages are concerned, the same situation of domination can be diversely interpreted, and frequently yield more complex reasons than what the simple dominant/dominated grid leads one to suppose. Calling upon different terrains, both temporal and spatial, allows us to perceive how varied the uses of a 'foreign language' - French - by such intellectuals can be: Maghrebi intellectuals raised during the colonial period, though historically more subject to colonial domination, may have developed a more critical relationship to French than those born after decolonization. Similarly, Middle Eastern intellectuals' relationship to French must be seen with an eye to their specific position in society and to the specific relationship to Arabic it induces. This article thus offers a political approach to the linguistic factor, by insisting more particularly on the uses certain Arab intellectuals in France have made of their languages, thus showing how a language, received in a historical situation of domination, can nevertheless be invested by a meaning that is not reducible to that circumstance.