French citizenship and identity

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According to the French Republic, the French people are those who are in possession of French nationality. According to the French Constitutional Council, "the Constitution, recognizes none other than the French people, composed of all its citizens, making no distinction of race, ethnic origin or religion."1

Throughout the twentieth century, France has exhibited a very high rate of immigration, mainly from Southern Europe, the Maghreb, Africa and Asia. According to a 2004 report by INED researcher Michèle Tribalat France has approximately 14 million persons (out of nearly 63 million) (see demographics of France) of foreign ascendancy (immigrants or with at least one parent or great-parent immigrant).

The absence of official statistics on French citizens of foreign origin is not coincidental. The idea of French ethnicity is not one which informs mainstream discourse in France. Under French law passed after the Vichy regime, it is forbidden to categorize people according to their ethnic origins. In France, as in many European countries, censuses do not collect information on supposed ancestry. Moreover, all French statistics are forbidden to have any references concerning ethnic membership. Thus, the French government's assimilationist stance towards immigration as well as towards regional identities and cultures, together with the political heritage of the French revolution has led to the development of a French identity which is based more on the notion of citizenship than on cultural, historical or ethnic ties.

For this reason, French identity must not necessarily be associated with the "ethnic French people". In fact, the existence itself of a "French ethnic group" is more than disputed, since many Frenchmen argue that it is a nationality and a citizenship, and not an ethnicity. "French ethnicity" exists outside France's borders, in particular in Quebec where many people claim membership to a "French ethnic group", and is not shared by everyone within France. However, France's particular self-perception, similar to that of immigrant countries such as the USA, means that French identity may include an ethnic Portuguese or Algerian but not an "ethnic French" from Quebec.

[edit] Rights and obligations of French citizens

In modern France in general the rights are fundamentally the same as those in other EU countries. Despite this official discourse of universality, French nationality has not meant automatic citizenship. Some categories of French people have been excluded, throughout the years, from full citizenship:

• Women: until the Liberation, they were deprived of the right to vote. The provisional government of General de Gaulle accorded them this right by the April 21, 1944 prescription. However, women still suffer from under-representation in the political class and from lesser wages at equal functions. The June 6, 2000 law on parity attempted to address this question ^[1].
• Military: for a long time, it was named the Grande muette ("The Big Mute") in reference to its prohibition from interfering in political life. During a large part of the Third Republic (1871-1940), the Army was in its majority anti-republicanism (and thus counterrevolutionary). The Dreyfus Affair and the May 16, 1877 crisis, which almost led to a monarchist coup d'état by MacMahon, are examples of this anti-republican spirit. Therefore, they would only gain the right to vote with the August 17, 1945 prescription: the contribution of De Gaulle to the interior French Resistance reconciled the Army with the Republic. Nevertheless, militaries do not benefit from the whole of public liberties, as the July 13, 1972 law on the general statute of militaries specify.
• Young people: the July 1974 law voted at the instigation of president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing reduced to 18 years the coming of age, which thus made of these teenagers full citizens.
• Naturalized foreigners. Since the January 9, 1973 law, foreigners who have acquired French nationality don't have to wait anymore five years after their naturalization to be able to vote.
• Inhabitants of the colonies. The May 7, 1946 law meant that soldiers from the "Empire" (such as the tirailleurs) killed during World War I and World War II weren't citizens ^[2].

It must also be noted that France was one of the first country to implement denaturalization laws. Philosopher Giorgio Agamben has pointed out this fact that the 1915 French law which permitted denaturalization with regard to naturalized citizens of "enemy" origins was one of the first example of such legislation, which Nazi Germany later implemented with the 1935 Nuremberg Laws ^[3].

Furthermore, some authors who have insisted on the "crisis of the nation-state" allege that nationality and citizenship are becoming separate concepts. They show as example "international", "supranational citizenship" or "world citizenship" (membership to transnational organizations, such as Amnesty International or Greenpeace NGOs). This would indicate a path toward a "postnational citizenship" ^[2].

Beside this, modern citizenship is linked to civic participation (also called positive freedom), which design voting, demonstrations, petitions, activism, etc. Therefore, social exclusion may lead to deprive one of his/her citizenship. This has led various authors (Philippe Van Parijs, Jean-Marc Ferry, Alain Caillé, André Gorz) to theorize a guaranteed minimum income which would impede exclusion from citizenship. ^[4]

[edit] References

1. ^ (French) Loi n° 2000-493 du 6 juin 2000 tendant à favoriser l’égal accès des femmes et des hommes aux mandats électoraux et fonctions électives. French Senate (June 6, 2000). Retrieved on May 2, 2006.
2. ^ ^{a b} (French) B. Villalba. Chapitre 2 - Les incertitudes de la citoyenneté. Catholic University of Lille, Law Department. Retrieved on May 3, 2006.
3. ^ See Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, Stanford University Press (1998), ISBN 0-8047-3218-3.
4. ^ (French) P. Hassenteufel, "Exclusion sociale et citoyenneté", "Citoyenneté et société", Cahiers Francais, n° 281, mai-juin 1997), quoted by B. Villalba of the Catholic University of Lille, op.cit.