A melting pot is a monocultural metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous , the different elements "melting together" with a common culture; an alternative being a homogeneous society becoming more heterogeneous through the influx of foreign elements with different cultural backgrounds. It can also create a harmonious hybridized society known as cultural amalgamation . In the United States, the term is often used to describe the cultural integration of immigrants to the country . A related concept has been defined as "cultural additivity."
78-761: René Hauss (25 December 1927 – 6 December 2010) was a French football defender and coach. He spent his entire playing career with RC Strasbourg . After his playing career, he became a coach with RC Strasbourg and Standard de Liège . This biographical article related to association football in France, about a defender born in the 1920s, is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . French people France: 67,413,000 French diaspora and ancestry : c. 30 million Asia Middle East Europe North America South America Oceania The French people ( French : Les Français , lit. 'The French') are
156-542: A nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture , history , and language , identified with the country of France . The French people, especially the native speakers of langues d'oïl from northern and central France, are primarily descended from Romans (or Gallo-Romans , western European Celtic and Italic peoples ), Gauls (including the Belgae ), as well as Germanic peoples such as
234-442: A "fusion, as of elements in solution in a vast hot pot". The [baseball] field is the real crucible, the melting pot wherein the rival races are being mixed, combined and molded to the standards of real citizenship and the requirements of the true American. There were a number of ways that the melting pot is considered to have worked throughout American history. For example, baseball , whose unifying powers were first perceived in
312-629: A community of French Huguenots settled in South Africa . Most of these originally settled in the Cape Colony , but have since been quickly absorbed into the Afrikaner population. After Champlain's founding of Quebec City in 1608, it became the capital of New France . Encouraging settlement was difficult, and while some immigration did occur, by 1763 New France only had a population of some 65,000. From 1713 to 1787, 30,000 colonists immigrated from France to
390-566: A majority of French people had other first languages (local languages such as Occitan , Catalan , Alsatian , West Flemish , Lorraine Franconian , Gallo , Picard or Ch'timi and Arpitan ). Today, many immigrants speak another tongue at home. According to historian Eric Hobsbawm , "the French language has been essential to the concept of 'France'," although in 1789, 50 percent of the French people did not speak it at all, and only 12 to 13 percent spoke it fairly well; even in oïl languages zones, it
468-531: A number of countries in Southeast Asia . Given the region's location and importance to trade routes between China and the Western world, certain countries in the region have become ethnically diverse. In Vietnam, a relevant phenomenon is " tam giáo đồng nguyên " (lit. "Three spears, one point," idiomatically "three teachers, one lesson"), references the harmonious co-existence and mutually influencing teachings of
546-571: A single year even—transforms the English, the German, the Irish emigrant into an American. Uniform institutions, ideas, language, the influence of the majority, bring us soon to a similar complexion; the individuality of the immigrant, almost even his traits of race and religion, fuse down in the democratic alembic like chips of brass thrown into the melting pot. In 1893, historian Frederick Jackson Turner also used
624-433: Is also widely spoken, arguably the largest minority language in France as of the 21st century (a spot previously held by Breton and Occitan ). Modern French society is a melting pot . From the middle of the 19th century, it experienced a high rate of inward migration , mainly consisting of Spaniards , Portuguese , Italians , Arab-Berbers , Jews , Sub-Saharan Africans , Chinese , and other peoples from Africa ,
702-603: Is estimated that 20,000 settlers were living in Saigon in 1945, and there were 68,430 European settlers living in Madagascar in 1958. 1.6 million European pieds noirs settlers migrated from Algeria , Tunisia and Morocco . In just a few months in 1962, 900,000 pied noir settlers left Algeria in the most massive relocation of population in Europe since the World War II . In
780-399: Is happening as part of a background evolution and recent studies confirmed the results of their assimilation, showing that "North Africans seem to be characterized by a high degree of cultural integration reflected in a relatively high propensity to exogamy " with rates ranging from 20% to 50%. According to Emmanuel Todd the relatively high exogamy among French Algerians can be explained by
858-498: Is my home". Indeed, the country has long valued its openness , tolerance and the quality of services available. Application for French citizenship is often interpreted as a renunciation of previous state allegiance unless a dual citizenship agreement exists between the two countries (for instance, this is the case with Switzerland : one can be both French and Swiss). The European treaties have formally permitted movement and European citizens enjoy formal rights to employment in
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#1732923792653936-570: Is predicated upon racist hatred for the Japanese enemy: "the emotion which enables the platoon to transcend racial prejudice is itself a virulent expression of racial hatred...The final heat which blends the ingredients of the melting pot is rage against an enemy which is fully dehumanized as a race of 'dirty monkeys. ' " He sees this racist rage as an expression of "the unresolved tension between racialism and civic egalitarianism in American life". Following
1014-591: Is such a thing as a "French ethnic group". The discourse of ethno-nationalist groups such as the Front National (FN), however, advances the concept of Français de souche or "indigenous" French. The conventional conception of French history starts with Ancient Gaul, and French national identity often views the Gauls as national precursors, either as biological ancestors (hence the refrain nos ancêtres les Gaulois ), as emotional/spiritual ancestors, or both. Vercingetorix ,
1092-503: Is thought to have survived into the 6th century in France, despite considerable Romanization of the local material culture. Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French, with effects including loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes, and influences in conjugation and word order. Today, the last redoubt of Celtic language in France can be found in
1170-617: The Americas , with the exception of the Huguenots , due to a lower birthrate than in the rest of Europe. However, significant emigration of mainly Roman Catholic French populations led to the settlement of the Province of Acadia , Canada (New France) and Louisiana , all (at the time) French possessions, as well as colonies in the West Indies , Mascarene islands and Africa . On 30 December 1687,
1248-515: The Danelaw in the region known today as Normandy in the 9th and 10th centuries. This later became a fiefdom of the Kingdom of France under King Charles III . The Vikings eventually intermarried with the local people, converting to Christianity in the process. The Normans, two centuries later, went on to conquer England and Southern Italy . Eventually, though, the largely autonomous Duchy of Normandy
1326-1116: The Franks , the Visigoths , the Suebi and the Burgundians who settled in Gaul from east of the Rhine after the fall of the Roman Empire , as well as various later waves of lower-level irregular migration that have continued to the present day. The Norsemen also settled in Normandy in the 10th century and contributed significantly to the ancestry of the Normans . Furthermore, regional ethnic minorities also exist within France that have distinct lineages, languages and cultures such as Bretons in Brittany , Occitans in Occitania , Basques in
1404-836: The French Basque Country , Catalans in northern Catalonia , Germans in Alsace , Corsicans in Corsica and Flemings in French Flanders . France has long been a patchwork of local customs and regional differences, and while most French people still speak the French language as their mother tongue , languages like Picard , Poitevin-Saintongeais , Franco-Provencal , Occitan , Catalan , Auvergnat , Corsican , Basque , French Flemish , Lorraine Franconian , Alsatian , Norman , and Breton remain spoken in their respective regions. Arabic
1482-554: The French Constitution , according to which "French" is a nationality , and not a specific ethnicity. France sits at the edge of the European peninsula and has seen waves of migration of groups that often settled owing to the presence of physical barriers preventing onward migration. This has led to language and regional cultural variegation, but the extent to which this pattern of migrations showed up in population genetics studies
1560-533: The French West Indies ( French Caribbean ), and in foreign countries with significant French-speaking population groups or not, such as the United States ( French Americans ), Canada ( French Canadians ), Argentina ( French Argentines ), Brazil ( French Brazilians ), Mexico ( French Mexicans ), Chile ( French Chileans ) and Uruguay ( French Uruguayans ). To be French, according to
1638-466: The Industrial Revolution . The pace of industrial growth attracted millions of European immigrants over the next century, with especially large numbers arriving from Poland , Belgium , Portugal , Italy , and Spain . In the period from 1915 to 1950, many immigrants came from Czechoslovakia , Hungary , Russia , Scandinavia and Yugoslavia . Small but significant numbers of Frenchmen in
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#17329237926531716-685: The Middle East and East Asia , and the government, defining France as an inclusive nation with universal values, advocated assimilation through which immigrants were expected to adhere to French values and cultural norms. Nowadays, while the government has let newcomers retain their distinctive cultures since the mid-1980s and requires from them a mere integration , French citizens still equate their nationality with citizenship as does French law. In addition to mainland France, French people and people of French descent can be found internationally, in overseas departments and territories of France such as
1794-651: The Saint-Domingue . In 1805, when the French were forced out of Saint-Domingue ( Haiti ), 35,000 French settlers were given lands in Cuba . By the beginning of the 17th century, some 20% of the total male population of Catalonia was made up of French immigrants. In the 18th century and early 19th century, a small migration of French emigrated by official invitation of the Habsburgs to the Austro-Hungarian Empire , now
1872-527: The United States Census , French people are not asked to define their ethnic appartenance, whichever it may be. The usage of ethnic and racial categorization is avoided to prevent any case of discrimination; the same regulations apply to religious membership data that cannot be compiled under the French Census. This classic French republican non- essentialist conception of nationality is officialized by
1950-521: The "racial masquerade" that was involved in creation of a white "melting pot" culture through the stereotyping and imitation of black and other non-white cultures in the early 20th century, historian Michael Rogin has commented: "Repudiating 1920s nativism, these films [Rogin discusses The Jazz Singer , Old San Francisco (1927), Whoopee! (1930), King of Jazz (1930) celebrate the melting pot. Unlike other racially stigmatized groups, white immigrants can put on and take off their mask of difference. But
2028-466: The "salad bowl" or the "symphony" are more often used by sociologists to describe how cultures and ethnicities mix in the United States. Mayor David Dinkins , when referring to New York City, described it as "not a melting pot, but a gorgeous mosaic...of race and religious faith, of national origin and sexual orientation – of individuals whose families arrived yesterday and generations ago..." Since
2106-401: The 1789 French Revolution . It replaced the ancient kingdom of France, ruled by the divine right of kings . The 1870 Franco-Prussian War , which led to the short-lived Paris Commune of 1871, was instrumental in bolstering patriotic feelings; until World War I (1914–1918), French politicians never completely lost sight of the disputed Alsace-Lorraine region which played a major role in
2184-557: The 1960s, much research in Sociology and History has disregarded the melting pot theory for describing interethnic relations in the United States and other countries. Whether to support a melting-pot or multicultural approach has developed into an issue of much debate within some countries. For example, the French and British governments and populace are currently debating whether Islamic cultural practices and dress conflict with their attempts to form culturally unified countries. Today
2262-579: The 1970s, over 30,000 French settlers left Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime as the Pol Pot government confiscated their farms and land properties. In the 1960s, a second wave of immigration came to France, which was needed for reconstruction purposes and for cheaper labour after the devastation brought on by World War II . French entrepreneurs went to Maghreb countries looking for cheap labour, thus encouraging work-immigration to France. Their settlement
2340-623: The 7th century BCE or earlier, and non-Celtic peoples including the Ligures , Aquitanians and Basques in Aquitaine. The Belgae , who lived in the northern and eastern areas, may have had Germanic admixture; many of these peoples had already spoken Gaulish by the time of the Roman conquest. Gaul was militarily conquered in 58–51 BCE by the Roman legions under the command of General Julius Caesar , except for
2418-415: The American is one who "leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater . Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in
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2496-631: The European tribes—of the Africans, and of the Polynesians—will construct a new race, a new religion, a new state, a new literature, which will be as vigorous as the new Europe which came out of the smelting-pot of the Dark Ages, or that which earlier emerged from the Pelasgic and Etruscan barbarism. These good people are future 'Yankees.' By next year they will be wearing the clothes of their new country, and by
2574-583: The Franks, led by the Merovingian king Clovis I and his sons, had consolidated their hold on much of modern-day France. The other major Germanic people to arrive in France, after the Burgundians and the Visigoths , were the Norsemen or Northmen . Known by the shortened name " Norman " in France, these were Viking raiders from modern Denmark and Norway . They settled with Anglo-Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons from
2652-526: The French Revolution, it divided social classes, with the peasants identifying with the native Gauls while the aristocracy identified with the Franks. During the early nineteenth century, intellectuals began using the identification with Gaul instead as a unifying force to bridge divisions within French society with a common national origin myth . Myriam Krepps of the University of Nebraska-Omaha argues that
2730-550: The Gaulish chieftain who tried to unite the various Gallic tribes of the land against Roman encroachment but was ultimately vanquished by Julius Caesar , is often revered as a "first national hero". In the famously popular French comic Asterix , the main characters are patriotic Gauls who fight against Roman invaders while in modern days the term Gaulois is used in French to distinguish the "native" French from French of immigrant origins. However, despite its occasional nativist usage,
2808-403: The Gaulish identity has also been embraced by French of non-native origins as well: notably, Napoleon III , whose family was ultimately of Corsican and Italian roots, identified France with Gaul and Vercingetorix, and declared that "New France, ancient France, Gaul are one and the same moral person." It has been noted that the French view of having Gallic origins has evolved over history. Before
2886-571: The Melting-Pot (1915), and Randolph Bourne in Trans-National America (1916), laid the foundations for the concept of cultural pluralism . This term was coined by Kallen. In the United States, where the term melting pot is still commonly used, the ideas of cultural pluralism and multiculturalism have, in some circles, taken precedence over the idea of assimilation. Alternate models where immigrants retain their native cultures such as
2964-930: The North and Northeast regions have relatives in Germany and Great Britain . Between 1956 and 1967, about 235,000 North African Jews from Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco also immigrated to France due to the decline of the French empire and following the Six-Day War. Hence, by 1968, Jews of North African origin comprised the majority of the Jewish population of France. As these new immigrants were already culturally French they needed little time to adjust to French society. French law made it easy for thousands of settlers ( colons in French), national French from former colonies of North and East Africa , India and Indochina to live in mainland France. It
3042-470: The Roman army and obtained important commands. Their language is still spoken as a kind of Dutch ( French Flemish ) in northern France ( French Flanders ). The Alamans , another Germanic people immigrated to Alsace , hence the Alemannic German now spoken there. The Alamans were competitors of the Franks, and their name is the origin of the French word for "German": Allemand . By the early 6th century,
3120-593: The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City strongly revived the melting pot image, returning to a bedrock form of American nationalism and patriotism. The reemergence of Olympic melting pot discourse was driven especially by the unprecedented success of African Americans , Mexican Americans , Asian Americans , and Native Americans in events traditionally associated with Europeans and white North Americans such as speed skating and
3198-661: The US and the UK) but as social conflicts born out of socioeconomic problems endangering proper integration. Historically, the heritage of the French people is mostly of Celtic or Gallic , Latin ( Romans ) origin, descending from the ancient and medieval populations of Gauls or Celts from the Atlantic to the Rhone Alps , Germanic tribes that settled France from east of the Rhine and Belgium after
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3276-461: The United States took inspiration from these ideas. Man is the most composite of all creatures.... Well, as in the old burning of the Temple at Corinth, by the melting and intermixture of silver and gold and other metals a new compound more precious than any, called Corinthian brass , was formed; so in this continent—asylum of all nations—the energy of Irish, Germans, Swedes, Poles, and Cossacks, and all
3354-405: The academic debates on identity, adaptation and integration of immigrants into various political, social and economic spheres. The concept of immigrants "melting" into the receiving culture is found in the writings of J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur . In his Letters from an American Farmer (1782) Crèvecœur writes, in response to his own question, "What then is the American, this new man?" that
3432-632: The aftermath of the 1860s Civil War , was often said to play a significant role in integrating immigrants in particular. In New York City, where the modern version of baseball began , immigrants invented variations of the game in the streets at the turn of the 20th century in their rush to integrate themselves. Baseball also improved race relations: Jackie Robinson was a major black baseball-playing icon who crossed Major League Baseball's color line by 1947, which helped to reduce racial segregation. White Americans long regarded some elements of African-American culture quintessentially "American", while at
3510-552: The bobsled. The 2002 Winter Olympics was also a showcase of American religious freedom and cultural tolerance of the history of Utah's large majority population of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , as well as representation of Muslim Americans and other religious groups in the U.S. Olympic team. In Henry Ford 's Ford English School (established in 1914), the graduation ceremony for immigrant employees involved symbolically stepping off an immigrant ship and passing through
3588-447: The centuries to France, creating a variegated grouping of peoples. Thus the historian John F. Drinkwater states, "The French are, paradoxically, strongly conscious of belonging to a single nation, but they hardly constitute a unified ethnic group by any scientific gauge." The modern French are the descendants of mixtures including Romans , Celts , Iberians , Ligurians and Greeks in southern France, Germanic peoples arriving at
3666-524: The colonial link between France and Algeria. A small French descent group also subsequently arrived from Latin America ( Argentina , Chile and Uruguay ) in the 1970s. Most French people speak the French language as their mother tongue , but certain languages like Norman , Occitan languages , Corsican , Euskara , French Flemish and Breton remain spoken in certain regions (see Language policy in France ). There have also been periods of history when
3744-581: The decline of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, a federation of Germanic peoples entered the picture: the Franks , from which the word "French" derives. The Franks were Germanic pagans who began to settle in northern Gaul as laeti during the Roman era. They continued to filter across the Rhine River from present-day Netherlands and Germany between the 3rd and 7th centuries. Initially, they served in
3822-425: The definition of the French nation and therefore of the French people. The decrees of 24 October 1870 by Adolphe Crémieux granted automatic and massive French citizenship to all Jewish people of Algeria. Successive waves of immigrants during the 19th and 20th centuries were rapidly assimilated into French culture . France's population dynamics began to change in the middle of the 19th century, as France joined
3900-557: The depiction of a multiracial American unit. At the time blacks and Japanese in the armed forces were still segregated, while Chinese and Indians were in integrated units. Historian Richard Slotkin sees Bataan and the combat genre that sprang from it as the source of the "melting pot platoon", a cinematic and cultural convention symbolizing in the 1940s "an American community that did not yet exist", and thus presenting an implicit protest against racial segregation. However, Slotkin points out that ethnic and racial harmony within this platoon
3978-416: The end of the Roman Empire such as the Franks and the Burgundians , and some Vikings who mixed with the Normans and settled mostly in Normandy in the 9th century. According to Dominique Schnapper , "The classical conception of the nation is that of an entity which, opposed to the ethnic group, affirms itself as an open community, the will to live together expressing itself by the acceptation of
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#17329237926534056-466: The fall of the Roman Empire such as the Franks , Burgundians , Allemanni , Visigoths , and Suebi , Latin and Roman tribes such as Ligurians and Gallo-Romans , Basques , and Norse populations largely settling in Normandy at the beginning of the 10th century as well as " Bretons " (Celtic Britons) settling in Brittany in Western France . The name "France" etymologically derives from
4134-551: The first article of the French Constitution , is to be a citizen of France, regardless of one's origin, race, or religion ( sans distinction d'origine, de race ou de religion ). According to its principles, France has devoted itself to the destiny of a proposition nation , a generic territory where people are bounded only by the French language and the assumed willingness to live together, as defined by Ernest Renan 's " plébiscite de tous les jours " ('everyday plebiscite') on
4212-589: The following year they will be speaking its language. Their children will grow up and will no longer even remember the mother country. America is the melting pot in which all the nations of the world come to be fused into a single mass and cast in a uniform mold. No reverberatory effect of The Great War has caused American public opinion more solicitude than the failure of the 'melting-pot.' The discovery of diverse nationalistic feelings among our great alien population has come to most people as an intense shock. Blacks, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, etcetera, could not melt into
4290-445: The freedom promised immigrants to make themselves over points to the vacancy, the violence, the deception, and the melancholy at the core of American self-fashioning". This trend towards greater acceptance of ethnic and racial minorities was evident in popular culture in the combat films of World War II, starting with Bataan (1943). This film celebrated solidarity and cooperation between Americans of all races and ethnicities through
4368-501: The island of Saint-Martin hold French nationality even though they do not speak French as a first language, while their neighbouring French-speaking Haitian immigrants (who also speak a French-creole) remain foreigners. Large numbers of people of French ancestry outside Europe speak other first languages, particularly English, throughout most of North America (with Quebec and Acadians in the Canadian Maritimes being notable, not
4446-470: The melting pot , entering at one end in costumes designating their nationality and emerging at the other end in identical suits and waving American flags. In response to the pressure exerted on immigrants to culturally assimilate and also as a reaction against the denigration of the culture of non-Anglo white immigrants by Nativists, intellectuals on the left, such as Horace Kallen in Democracy Versus
4524-430: The melting pot model has been rejected by proponents of multiculturalism , who have suggested alternative metaphors to describe the current American society, such as a salad bowl , or kaleidoscope , in which different cultures mix, but remain distinct in some aspects. The melting pot continues to be used as an assimilation model in vernacular and political discourse along with more inclusive models of assimilation in
4602-682: The metaphor of immigrants melting into one American culture. In his essay The Significance of the Frontier in American History , he referred to the "composite nationality" of the American people, arguing that the frontier had functioned as a " crucible " where "the immigrants were Americanized, liberated and fused into a mixed race, English in neither nationality nor characteristics". In his 1905 travel narrative The American Scene , Henry James discusses cultural intermixing in New York City as
4680-602: The nation's three major religious schools, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, demonstrating a process described as "cultural addivity". In contrast to the melting pot theory, Malaysia and Singapore promote cultural preservation of their various ethnicities. In Malaysia they say "agama, bangsa, negara" which means "various religions, various ethnicities, one nation." Malaysia is made up of different religions and ethnicities yet all are citizens and everyone should respect one another, join hands, and work together. Each ethnicity should work to preserve their own ethnic identity while at
4758-490: The nations of Austria , Czech Republic , Hungary , Slovakia , Serbia and Romania . Some of them, coming from French-speaking communes in Lorraine or being French Swiss Walsers from the Valais canton in Switzerland , maintained for some generations the French language and a specific ethnic identity, later labelled as Banat (French: Français du Banat ). By 1788, there were eight villages populated by French colonists. The French First Republic appeared following
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#17329237926534836-414: The northwestern region of Brittany , although this is not the result of a survival of Gaulish language but of a 5th-century AD migration of Brythonic speaking Celts from Britain . The Vulgar Latin in the region of Gallia took on a distinctly local character, some of which is attested in graffiti, which evolved into the Gallo-Romance dialects which include French and its closest relatives. With
4914-414: The only, exceptions), Spanish or Portuguese in southern South America , and Afrikaans in South Africa . The adjective "French" can be used to mean either "French citizen" or "French-speaker", and usage varies depending on the context, with the former being common in France. The latter meaning is often used in Canada, when discussing matters internal to Canada. Generations of settlers have migrated over
4992-428: The reaction to this doctrine is ambivalent; some say that it was a necessary measure in the founding years, while others claim that it amounted to cultural oppression . Others argue that the melting pot policy did not achieve its declared target: for example, the persons born in Israel are more similar from an economic point of view to their parents than to the rest of the population. The term has been used to describe
5070-421: The rules of a unified public domain which transcends all particularisms". This conception of the nation as being composed by a "will to live together," supported by the classic lecture of Ernest Renan in 1882, has been opposed by the French far-right , in particular the nationalist Front National ("National Front" – FN / now Rassemblement National - "National Rally" - RN) party which claims that there
5148-432: The same time treating African Americans as second-class citizens. White appropriation, stereotyping and mimicking of black culture played an important role in the construction of an urban popular culture in which European immigrants could express themselves as Americans, through such traditions as blackface , minstrel shows and later in jazz and in early Hollywood cinema, notably in The Jazz Singer (1927). Analyzing
5226-445: The same time working together to build Malaysia as a national effort, living in peace and harmony. The Caribbean has a substantial amount of mixing between different ethnic groups, due to the history of various labor groups being imported into the region. Mexico has had a significant amount of cultural and ethnic fusion among its many groups, with its government pursuing a " mestizo " (mixed heritage) ideal. Civil rights reformers in
5304-411: The south-east which had already been conquered about one century earlier. Over the next six centuries, the two cultures intermingled, creating a hybridized Gallo-Roman culture . In the late Roman era, in addition to colonists from elsewhere in the Empire and Gaulish natives, Gallia also became home to some immigrant populations of Germanic and Scythian origin, such as the Alans . The Gaulish language
5382-639: The state sector (though not as trainees in reserved branches, e.g., as magistrates ). Seeing itself as an inclusive nation with universal values, France has always valued and strongly advocated assimilation . However, the success of such assimilation has recently been called into question. There is increasing dissatisfaction with, and within, growing ethno-cultural enclaves ( communautarisme ). The 2005 French riots in some troubled and impoverished suburbs ( les quartiers sensibles ) were an example of such tensions. However they should not be interpreted as ethnic conflicts (as appeared before in other countries like
5460-448: The view of "a unified territory (one land since the beginning of civilization) and a unified people" which de-emphasized "all disparities and the succession of waves of invaders" was first imprinted on the masses by the unified history curriculum of French textbooks in the late 1870s. Since the beginning of the Third Republic (1871–1940), the state has not categorized people according to their alleged ethnic origins. Hence, in contrast to
5538-402: The willingness to live together, in Renan's 1882 essay " Qu'est-ce qu'une nation? "). The debate concerning the integration of this view with the principles underlying the European Community remains open. France has been historically open to immigration, although this has changed in recent years. Referring to this perceived openness, Gertrude Stein , wrote: "America is my country but Paris
5616-519: The word Francia , the territory of the Franks . The Franks were a Germanic tribe that overran Roman Gaul at the end of the Roman Empire . In the pre-Roman era, Gaul (an area of Western Europe that encompassed all of what is known today as France, Belgium, part of Germany and Switzerland, and Northern Italy) was inhabited by a variety of peoples who were known collectively as the Gaulish tribes . Their ancestors were Celts who came from Central Europe in
5694-480: The world." In 1845, Ralph Waldo Emerson , alluding to the development of European civilization out of the medieval Dark Ages , wrote in his private journal of America as the Utopian product of a culturally and racially mixed " smelting pot", but only in 1912 were his remarks first published. A magazine article in 1876 used the metaphor explicitly: The fusing process goes on as in a blast-furnace ; one generation,
5772-558: Was also identified in the fourteenth century, consistent with the timing for the Black Death in Europe. Melting pot The melting-together metaphor was in use by the 1780s. The exact term "melting pot" came into general usage in the United States after it was used as a metaphor describing a fusion of nationalities, cultures and ethnicities in Israel Zangwill 's 1908 play of the same name . The desirability of assimilation and
5850-478: Was incorporated back into the royal domain (i. e. the territory under direct control of the French king) in the Middle Ages . In the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem , founded in 1099, at most 120,000 Franks, who were predominantly French -speaking Western Christians, ruled over 350,000 Muslims, Jews, and native Eastern Christians. Unlike elsewhere in Europe, France experienced relatively low levels of emigration to
5928-553: Was not usually used except in cities, and even there not always in the outlying districts . Abroad, the French language is spoken in many different countries – in particular the former French colonies . Nevertheless, speaking French is distinct from being a French citizen. Thus, francophonie , or the speaking of French, must not be confused with French citizenship or ethnicity. For example, French speakers in Switzerland are not "French citizens". Native English-speaking Blacks on
6006-637: Was officialized with Jacques Chirac 's family regrouping act of 1976 ( regroupement familial ). Since then, immigration has become more varied, although France stopped being a major immigration country compared to other European countries. The large impact of North African and Arab immigration is the greatest and has brought racial , socio-cultural and religious questions to a country seen as homogenously European, French and Christian for thousands of years. Nevertherless, according to Justin Vaïsse , professor at Sciences Po Paris , integration of Muslim immigrants
6084-403: Was unclear until the publication of a study in 2019 that used genome wide data. The study identified six different genetic clusters that could be distinguished across populations. The study concluded that the population genetic clusters correlate with linguistic and historical divisions in France and with the presence of geographic barriers such as mountains and major rivers. A population bottleneck
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