Lapina Natalia Yurievna – Sc.D.in Political Sciences, Principal Researcher, Head of the Department of global problems, INION RAS
Over the past half century, France has become a country of ethnocultural diversity. The study conducted half a century ago showed that every fifth Frenchman had foreign ancestors. At the beginning of this century, the historian J. Noiriel wrote that in the third generation every third Frenchman had foreign roots. In 2022, according to the UN, 8.52 million immigrants lived in France. French government institutions understate the figures. They deliberately distort facts related to immigration so as not to “scare” the French. However, the lack of real data, writes historian and demographer E. Todd [Todd, 2020, p. 103], only creates an unhealthy atmosphere and allows far-right forces to say that in France there is a “replacement” of the white population with people of color. For a long time, immigration was viewed as a minor issue in France. Today, politicians recognize that immigration is an internal problem of French society. The overwhelming majority of foreigners do not intend to leave France and their children born in the country according to the principle of «right of soil» (jus soli) are French citizens. With the continuous growth in the number of immigrants, the integration of this part of the population has become the most pressing problem of modern French society. In France, debates continue regarding the success/failure of immigrant integration. Left-wing political parties tend to believe that integration «works». On the right flank they believe that integration has ceased to work. The article analyzes two models: (1) partial and complete integration and (2) conflict adaptation. The social successes and failures of immigrants and their descendants are shown.
immigration, globalization, France, adaptation, integration, E. Macron, V. Giscard d’Estaing.
Download text