Behind Nicolas Sarkozy’s remark, “As soon as one becomes French, our ancestors are Gauls,” lies the demand for assimilation by a portion of the French right and now a part of the French left. The assimilationist discourse, even under the guise of a “national narrative,” is nothing but a form of racism and xenophobia.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s remark, “As soon as one becomes French, our ancestors are Gauls,” has generated a lot of discussion.
Regardless of its lack of historical accuracy and aside from the contradiction from the former President of the Republic, who constantly reminds us of France’s Christian roots to suddenly evoke its pagan roots, what lies behind this statement is the demand for assimilation from a portion of the French right and now a part of the French identity left.
Let’s remember that assimilation means the loss of original culture for an immigrant. It means the loss of any culture deemed “different” for a French person.
Integration involves learning the language, respecting living together, the laws, and the values of the Republic without renouncing one’s culture and personal identity.
Historian Yvan Gastaut has pointed out the successive retreats of the left on integration, “sacrificed under François Hollande’s mandate” and “almost prohibited from public language.” From “insertion” once used to integration, we move to the “inclusive society” proposed by the Tuot report in 2013, then to an absence of clear naming from the government while a gradual shift occurs, even on the left, towards an “assimilation” with colonialist overtones.*
While the debate in the 1980s-1990s concerned the integration of foreigners arriving in France, it now concerns French people, from families that have been French for three to four generations.
What is then designated as a foreign culture to be erased to be “fully” assimilated is the practice of the Muslim faith. Philosopher Etienne Balibar explains that “identity secularism” tends to “the assimilation of populations of foreign origin (which clearly means: colonial and postcolonial), still potentially, due to their religious beliefs, constituting a ‘foreign body’ within the nation.”
But let’s not be deceived, assimilation will be one of the major issues of the presidential election. It completes the identity offensive on secularism and is at the heart of Nicolas Sarkozy’s project.
And let’s be very clear: seeing part of the left join him on this point is very worrying, because in reality, even under the guise of embracing a supposed “national narrative,” the assimilationist discourse is just a form of racism and xenophobia.
by David Nakache
