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Abstract
France has recently held a national debate on the nature of its national identity. This grassroot process has lead thousands of French citizens to define in their own terms what it means to be French. Based upon these contributions, this article proposes a typology of the different meanings of being French and looks to throw light on these conceptions of citizenship, in explaining their respective origins and premises, but also in showing their potential and disadvantages with regard to the challenges of ethno-cultural pluralism.
Notes on contributor
Jean-François Caron is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science in the Université de Moncton.
Notes
2. Between 25 October 2009 and 2 December 2009, 1,436 newspaper articles referred to the debate.
3. Such as former Belgian Prime minister Guy Verhostadt, who said in February 2010, something was rotten in the French Republic.
4. Especially from former Prime minister, Alain Juppé.
5. More comments have been submitted by the population, but many of them had to be filtered out for reasons related to racism, reputation damages or other prejudiciable motives.
6. Such as comments related to the usefulness of holding such a consultation, a critic of current political actors, comments thanking the government for holding such a debate or people who, instead of answering the question, have proposed different ways of holding the debate.
7. This does not mean that they are not meant to be replaced at some point in time. There is an ongoing debate in France regarding the replacement of the Marseillaise as the anthem in favor of the Chant des partisans.
8. Similarly to Marie Curie and Pablo Picasso, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's case is quite surprising considering that he was not born in France. The fact that these individuals are considered by certain French people as important symbols of their sense of nationhood can be interpreted as a reflection of the belief that France's civic nationalism is working. It presupposes that any individual who decides to immigrate to France in order to contribute to its success will never be denied its inclusion within the national family.
9. M-L.H. (avec AFP), ‘Civilisations’: Géant se justifient auprès des musulmans, France Soir, 2012, http://www.francesoir.fr/actualite/politique/civilisation-gueant-se-justifie-aupres-des-musulmans-181554.html.
10. Thierry Portes, Geert Wilders: L'idéologie islamique est fasciste, Le Figaro, 2008, http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2008/03/07/01003-20080307ARTFIG00024-geert-wilders-l-ideologie-islamique-est-fasciste.php.
11. iEngage, BNP’ Nick Griffin's Islamaphobic tirade en R5 Live, Engage, 2010, http://www.iengage.org.uk/component/content/article/842-bnps-nick-griffins-islamophobic-tirade-on-r5-live.
12. Surprisingly, of all the comments associated to this ethnic discourse that were listed by Marchand and Ratinaud, they only refer specifically to Muslims for the obvious reasons evoked in the text. The other cultural or religious minorities – such as the Jews – were not quoted as being problematic for the French identity.
13. A non-Muslim living in a Muslim country as a second-class citizen.
14. Grégoire Seither, Xavier Lemoine (UMP): les musulmans ont déclaré la guerre à la France, c'est eux ou c'est nous, Voltairenet, 2006, http://www.voltairenet.org/Xavier-Lemoine-UMP-les-musulmans.
15. Other than Jean-Marc Ferry, Jürgen Habermas or Jan-Werner Müller, we can also think of Justine Lacroix.
16. It was possible to read comments such as France is one of the few countries in the world and in Europe which is secular or France is practically the only country of the world to be secular. What we need to realize is that there are different conception of secularism. France's republican model is just one of them. Great Britain or Canada, for instance, have what we call an open model of secularism that allows the wearing by individuals of religious signs in the public sphere. In this regard, see Maclure & Taylor (Citation2010).
17. Le Monde.fr avec AFP. Selon Merkel, le modèle multiculturel en Allemagne a ‘totalement échoué’, Le Monde, 2010, http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2010/10/17/selon-merkel-le-modele-multiculturel-en-allemagne-a-totalement-echoue_1427431_3214.html.