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For a specific analysis of the population of France, see Demographics Of France . For a more precise analysis on the nationality and identity of France, see French Citizenship And Identity and French Nationality Law . For precisions about the French Language , see Definition of "French people" The French people ('', a Germanic tribe which overan Gaul at the end of the Roman empire) are the Sovereign people of France, composed of all French citizens, ''regardless of ethnic origins or religious opinions''. The French people therefore comprise all French Citizens , including the French Overseas Departments And Territories . Henceforth, members from any ethnic group can be included in the French people, as long as they have French nationality, whether by '' Jus Soli '' ("right of territory") or by Naturalization . Many English-language sources, among them the U.S. Department of State, define the "French people" as consisting of a "Celtic and Latin with Teutonic" majority, with "Slavic, North African, Sub-Saharan African, Indochinese, and Basque minorities". The ''Celtic and latin with teutonic majority'' could be viewed as the original "ethnic French" population. However, this definition is contested for a variety of reasons:
In past years, the debate on social Discrimination has been more and more important, sometimes mixing itself with Ethnic issues, in particular concerning the "second-generation immigrants", who are French citizens born to foreigners. France has exhibited a high rate of immigration from Europe, Africa and Asia throughout the 20th century, explaining that a large minority of the French Population has various ethnic ascendencies. According to Michèle Tribalat, researcher at INED , it is very difficult to estimate the number of French immigrants or those born to immigrants, because of the absence of official statistics. Only three attempts have been made: in 1927, 1942 and 1986. According to this 2004 study, among about 14 million people of foreign ascendency (immigrants or with at least one parent or grandparent who is an immigrant), 5.2 million are from South-European ascendency (Italy, Spain, Portugal), and 3 million come from the Maghreb {Link without Title} . Henceforth, 23% of French citizens have at least one immigrant parent or grandparent. No recognized studies have been done covering wider timescales since mass immigration started in the 20th century. Abroad, the '' must not be mistaken with French citizenship. For example, French-speaking people living in Switzerland ( Romandy ) are not from France, are often not Catholic (in fact they welcomed Religiously Persecuted Huguenot ), are very proud of their own identity, and do not consider themselves "French". Native Anglophone Blacks in the island of Saint-Martin hold the French nationality even though they do not speak the language, while their neighbouring Francophone Haitian illegals may be able to speak some French yet remain foreigners. Furthermore, although most French people speak the French Language as their Native Tongue , there have been periods of history when large groups of French citizens had other first languages (local dialects, German in Alsace , etc). Large numbers of people of French ancestry outside Europe speak other first languages, particularly English throughout most of North America , Spanish in southern South America and Afrikaans in South Africa . The United States Census Bureau and Statistics Canada collect claims of French ancestry and '''ethnic origin''' among US and Canadian citizens, asking those individuals completing long form census questionnaires to define themselves. The questions asked in the US and Canada were not identical, and the data collected may not be commensurable. However, this may not be sufficient in defining these people as an ethnic group, as they are not necessarily "readily distinguishable" from other US or Canadian citizens. Note that the data is extrapolated, from a very large sample, to produce national figures. History Main article: History Of France The term "French" (coming from the 's "''plébiscite de tous les jours''" ("daily referendum" about the willingness to live together). Countries based on Multiculturalism such as the USA or national homogeneity such as Japan may judge this as an "identity denial", while persistent Racism and Discrimination towards French citizens with origins in Maghreb and West Africa and possibly the dissatisfaction among growing cultural enclaves('' Communautarisme '') still stain the generous ideal of including anyone willing to in the French Republic. The 2005 French Riots that happened in difficult suburbs (''les quartiers sensibles'') were an example of such tensions that may be interpreted as ethnical demands, although mistakenly in many cases. History of Gaul is inhabited or influenced by Romans and Greeks. Aquitania is inhabited or influenced by Basques. Belgica is influenced by Germanic tribes.]] See Also: Gaul In the pre-Roman era, all of Gaul (an area of Western Europe that encompassed all of what is known today as France, Belgium, part of Germany and Swiss, and Northern Italy) was inhabited by a variety of peoples who were known collectively as the Gaulish Tribes . Their ancesters were Celtic immigrants who came from Central Europe in VIIth century BC, and dominated natives people (for the majority Ligures ). Gaul was conquered in 58 - 51 BC by the Roman legions under the command of General Julius Caesar (except south-east which was already conquered about one century earlier). The area then became part of the Roman Empire . Over the next five centuries the two cultures and peoples intermingled, creating a hybridized Gallo-Roman Culture . The old Celtic tongues had been largely reduced to a mere influence over the various Vulgar Latin dialects that had come to dominate communications in the region, dialects that would later develop into the French Language . Today, the last redoubt of Celtic culture and language in France can be found in the northwestern region of Brittany , although this is not the result of a survival of Gaulish language but of Medieval migration from Cornwall . The Franks See Also: Franks With the decline of the Roman Empire in Western Europe a third people entered the picture: the Franks , from which the word "French" borrow its etymology. The Franks were a Germanic tribe that began filtering across the Rhine River from present-day Germany in the Third Century . By the early Sixth Century the Franks, led by the Merovingian king Clovis I and his sons, had consolidated their hold on much of modern-day France, the country to which they gave their name. The other major Germanic people to arrive in France were the Normans , Viking raiders from modern Denmark and Norway , who occupied the northern region known today as Normandy in the 9th Century . The Vikings eventually intermarried with the local people, converting to Christianity in the process. It was the Normans who, two centuries later, would go on to Conquer England. Eventually, though, the independent Norman duchy was incorporated back into the French kingdom in the Middle Ages . It must be noted that very little direct ascendency can be deduced from the Franks to the modern 21st century French people. 15th to 18th century: the kingdom of France In the roughly 900 years after the Norman invasions France had a fairly settled population . Unlike elsewhere in Europe, France experienced relatively low levels of emigration to the Americas , with the exception of the Huguenots . However, significant emigration of mainly Roman Catholic French populations led to the settlement of the provinces of Acadia , Canada and Louisiana , both (at the time) French possessions, as well as colonies in the West Indies , Mascarene islands and Africa . 19th to 21st century: the creation of the French nation-state The French , Freemasons , Protestant s and, last but not least, the '' Métèques '' ("metic"). France's population dynamics began to change in the middle of the 19th Century , as France joined the Industrial Revolution . The pace of industrial growth pulled in millions of European immigrants over the next century, with especially large numbers arriving from Poland , Belgium , Portugal , Italy , and Spain . In the 1960s, a second wave of immigration came to France, which need it for reconstruction purposes and cheaper labour after the devastation brought upon by World War II . French entrepreneurs went to Maghreb countries looking for cheap labour, thus encouraging a work-immigration to France. Their settlement was officialized with Jacques Chirac 's family regrouping act of 1976 (''regroupement familial''). Since then, immigration has became more various, although France stopped being a major immigration country compared to other European countries. Population with French ancestry There is a sizeable population claiming ethnic French ancestry in the Western Hemisphere . The Canadian province of Quebec is the center of French life on the Western side of the Atlantic. It is home to the oldest French descent community and to vibrant French-language arts, media, and learning. There are sizeable French-Canadian communities scattered throughout the other provinces of Canada, particularly in Ontario and New Brunswick . The United States is home to millions of people of French descent, particularly in Louisiana and New England . The French community in Louisiana consists of the Creoles , the descendants of the French settlers who arrived when Louisiana was a French colony, and the Cajuns , the descendants of Acadian refugees from the Great Upheaval . In New England, the vast majority of French immigration in the 19th and early 20th centuries came not from France, but from over the border in Quebec. These French Canadians arrived to work in the timber mills and textile plants that were spring up throughout the region as it industrialized. Today, nearly 25% of the population of New Hampshire is of French ancestry, the highest of any state. It is worth noting that the English and Dutch colonies of pre-Revolutionary America attracted large numbers of French is named after La Rochelle , France, one of the sources of Huguenot emigration to the Dutch colony; and New Paltz, New York , is one of the few non-urban settlements of Huguenots that did not undergo massive recycling of buildings in the usual redevelopment of such older, larger cities as New York City or New Rochelle. Elsewhere in the Americas, the majority of the French descended population in South America can be found in Argentina , Brazil and Chile (families Pinochet , Subercaseaux, Bachelet, Blanlot, Beauchef, Choncol, Prajoux, Fouilloux, DuVauchelle, L'Hotelier, LaFourcade , Constant, Hameau, Blaise, Blanchait, Goulart, Hiriart, Chamot, Béthencourt, Ravinet, Chaigneau, Béthancourt, Bétencourt, Bétancourt, Lanusse, Daguerre, De L'Aire, Marchant, Duhart, Bonvallet, Lemoine, Morandais, Zalaquet, Des Ormeaux, Deformes, Crozier and more). Apart from Quebecois , Acadians , Cajuns , other populations of French ancestry outside metropolitan France include the '' Caldoche s'' of New Caledonia and the so-called '' Zoreilles '' and '' Petits-blancs '' of various Indian Ocean Islands . Ethnic claims and discontents There is a debate about the nature of the French people: does it designate a nationality and citizenship, as in the classic Republican conception, or can it be applied to a specific ethnic group, as does the far-right nationalist '' Front National '' party claims? Since the beginning of the Third Republic , it is not a tradition to categorize people according to their ethnic origins. Hence, to the difference of the US census, it is not asked of French people to define their ethnic appartenance, whichever it may be. This is explained by the Republican conception of Nationality , based on '' Jus Soli '' ("right of territory"), and not on '' Jus Sanguinis '' ("right of blood"). This classic French republican non- Essentialist conception of nationality is officialized by the French Constitution , according to whom "French" is a Nationality , and not a specific ethnicity. '' ("ethnic group"). On the other hand, Ernest Renan was himself extremely racist and has never intended to include any non-European population into this broad identity (''By setting apart the utterly inferior races whose interference with the great races would lead only to poison the human species, I plan for the future an homogeneous humanity''). However, this 's '' Nouvelle Droite '' movement, quite famous in the 1980s but which has since lost influence, has embraced a kind of European " White Supremacy " Ideology . It should be noted that most French people refuse the expression ''Français de souche'', which has no official validity in France although it is used in everyday language, something which has been designed as '' Lepénisation des esprits'' ("lepenisation of the minds"). Furthermore, the 1993 reform of the ''Code de la nationalité'' which defines the Nationality Law is deemed controversial by some. It commits young people born in France to foreign parents to demand the French nationality between 16 and 21. This has been criticized, some arguing that the principle of equality toward the law was not followed, since French nationality was no longer given automatically at birth, as in classical ''jus soli'' law, but was to be requested when approaching adulthood. Henceforth, children born in France from French parents were differenciated from children born in France from foreign parents, creating a hiatus between these two categories. Indeed, the inflow of populations from other continents, who still can be physically and/or culturally distinguished from Europeans, sparked much controversies in France since the early 1980s, even though immigration inflow precisely began to decrease at this time. In order to stifle any racist opposition and to provide an Assimilation framework, antiracist organizations were formed and demonstrations against the ''Front National'' took place. Now, the Interracial blending of some former French and newcomers stands as a vibrant and boasted feature of French culture, from popular music to movies and literature. Therefore, alongside mixing of populations, exists also a cultural blending (''le métissage culturel'') that is present in France. It may be compared to the traditional US conception of the Melting-pot . For a long time, the only objection to such outcomes predictably came from the far-right schools of thought. In the past few years, other unexpected voices are however beginning to question what they interpret, as the , a probable contender for the 2007 presidential election, takes example on the United States' conception of Multiculturalism to claim that France has consistently denied the existence of ethnic groups within their borders and have refused to grant them collective rights. President Jacques Chirac as well as the Socialist Party and other organizations have condemned these views, arguing that this refusal of the traditional universalist republican conception only favorizes Communitarianism , which the Republic does not recognize since the dissolving of intermediate associations of persons during the Estates-General Of 1789 (the population of the kingdom of France was then divided into the First Estate (nobles), the Second Estate (clergy), and the Third Estate (people)). For this reason, associations were forbidden until the Waldeck-Rousseau 1884 Labor Laws which permitted the creation of Trade Unions and the famous 1901 law on non-profit associations, which has been largely used by Civil Society in order to organizes itself. Language Main article: French Language The French Language , the mother tongue of the majority of the world's French, is a Romance Language , one of the many derived from Latin . In addition to its Latinate base, the development of French was also influenced, in both grammar and vocabulary, by the Celtic tongues of pre-Roman Gaul , the Germanic tongues of the Franks and the Norsemen/ Viking s who settled in Normandy . More recently, French has been heavily influenced by other global tongues, particularly English . French is not the only language spoken by the inhabitants of France. Regional Languages are also spoken although many of these are dying languages:
Other languages spoken in France or in French overseas territories include:
See also
Notes #Note|stat1}} CIA World Factbook #Note|stat2}} Maison des français de l'étranger, French citizens registrations in French consulates, 2000 www.mfe.org pdf file #Note|stat3}} people speaking French (excluding creole) at home, US Census bureau 1990, quoted by Jack Jedwab in L'immigration et l'épanouissement des communautés de langue officielle au Canada : politiques, démographie et identité #Note|stat4}} US Census bureau 2000, French ancestry claims exclude Basque, Cajun and French canadian ancestry claims pdf file, p.4 definitions p.222 (pdf file) . #Note|stat5}} Statistics Canada , Canada 2001 Census . Ethnic Origins (see sample longform census for details) [http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/themes/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2001&PID=62911&APATH=3&GID=431515&METH=1&PTYPE=55440&THEME=44&FOCUS=0&AID=0&PLACENAME=0&PROVINCE=0&SEARCH=0&GC=0&GK=0&VID=0&FL=0&RL=0&FREE=0][http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/themes/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2001&PID=55533&APATH=3&GID=431515&METH=1&PTYPE=55440&THEME=41&FOCUS=0&AID=0&PLACENAME=0&PROVINCE=0&SEARCH=0&GC=99&GK=NA&VID=0&FL=0&RL=0&FREE=0] #Note|stat6}} 2000 federal census {Link without Title} #Note|stat7}} Statbel 2004 {Link without Title} #Note|stat8}} As of 2004, the population of the . #Note|Renan}} Ernest Renan's comments on An Essay On The Inequality Of The Human Races by Arthur de Gobineau {Link without Title} References
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