This article isn't about the roots of the French people, their ethnic background, which is going back deep into the Celtic and Roman times. It's about some recent developments of the French national concept, born more than 200 years ago. It's also about the national identity that is still defined and redefined. It's about the vision that people in France have about themselves and about the image others are invited to have on them. How do they want to look like? Do they like what they see in the mirror? Does this have any effect on their future?

France was one of the first countries in continental Europe to develop a sense of national identity in the modern meaning. This means that people there were among the first to be regarded primarily as citizens of the state, not as members of local ethnic or more universal religious community (Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus). Later this sense of national belonging became universal in Europe but the Frenchmen were among the first to touch upon it.

During 19th and most of 20th century to be a French really meant to be a citizen, enjoying equal rights and freedoms with anyone else in the community. In some respect this egalitarian concept of nationhood was greatly facilitated by the fact that France was almost exclusively mono-religious (Catholic) society. Even the atheists had for the most parts Catholic ancestors. This fact was a result of earlier state intervention, and not to any particular aspiration of the population to share this and no other kind of religious beliefs. Through the centuries they were forced to be Catholic first and foremost, as later they will be forced to become anticlerical, to learn French at schools, and to join the army.

The modern French state from the beginning was interventionist. It didn't allow many social deviations that were considered normal in other societies, like for example to speak different languages. The inevitable social and political deviations from the standard procedures lead to a series of political upheavals that went far beyond the end of 19th century. The Left against the Right, the monarchists against the republicans, the anti-clericals against the church, the working class against the middle class. Anyone wanted to impose his particular view of the national identity. The result was a mixture of republican, anti-clerical and mostly rightist political views that gradually were enforced upon the general population. The newcomers, and we should mention that France needed many immigrants during the last 200 years for demographic reasons, had only one option left: to be assimilated in the French version of the "melting pot".

Millions went this way and today's French population is more multiethnic in its origins than many other European countries. The process of assimilation was facilitated by the fact that most of the immigrants of the previous vintages shared the same religious background. Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese and Poles that came to France during 19th and most of the 20th century were for the most part Catholic. Not so easy was the situation with other religious denominations. The most striking example of unaccomplished assimilation deals with the Arab Muslims, which are now almost 10% of the total population. They gradually increased after the WWII with some of them readily accepting to be assimilated and others keeping their traditional way of life. The French identity had either to accept this difference as part of itself or to try to impose some kind of forced uniformity or to keep this difference permanent by declaring millions of Muslims not taking part of the nation. For many historic reasons the last option wasn't considered seriously. The French radical republicanism can't accept different social classes coexisting on same territory.

At least 3 options then were open for consideration. The newcomers had either to accept all norms and renounce their cultural background, or to leave the country in order to preserve it, or the norms had to be changed to include the dissident groups.

So far it seems that the French government is opting for forced assimilation model, not paying enough attention to the fact that people with so different cultural background can't be easily put under uniform regime without many social tensions. Allowing or not the Muslim women to wear a head covering in public places is only one example, perhaps the most noticeable, but by no means the only one of this assimilation policy. The lack of respect for some inoffensive cultural differences in a country, where much more eccentric way of life is permissible, is highly surprising. The real point here is that no eccentric way of life poses so major treat to the national identity of the French society. To color your hair in blue is perceived as a private matter. To cover your hair becomes a public offense. The result unfortunately will be that these Muslim girls that are denied access to the public schools, will follow their education in private religious schools, far away from the "atheist" ideas of equal rights among men and women. They will be taught how to obey their husbands, how to bear 10 or more children and how to teach this obedience to her daughters. Instead of assimilating the minority, the state will push it back to its traditional way of life and keep it away from the modernity, because this lack of modernity will represent this minority's own identity.

So given the demographic trends in France, what we can expect to happen, not in the near future, but let's say 50 years from now.

The share of the Muslim community will continue to rise, naturally because of the traditional big family model and subordinated role of the women, and artificially because of the new illegal immigration coming from Northern Africa and Middle East. The pool of "Christian Frenchmen" will gradually decrease and the "Muslim foreigners" will perhaps represent a substantial part if not a majority of the workforce. Then comes the worst possible scenario. In order to defend its narrow view of national identity and its democratic institutions at the same time, the "Christian" community will turn France into a new version of 1980's South Africa. To escape this nightmare, Paris will be forced to invite more and more "Christian" Europeans from the East, ready to be assimilated. But given the same dangerous demographic trends in Eastern Europe, such measures will only have brief palliative effects.

The future of France will be the apartheid. Sounds too extreme but there will be no other way of preserving the political power in the hands of those who don't want to compromise with their narrow vision of national identity. In order to prevent this worst possible scenario, the steps should be taken in order to enlarge the French identity into those groups who now feel excluded from the republican ideals just because of their religious background. This advice unfortunately applies not only to France. Many other countries in Europe and elsewhere now face the same identity dilemma, to be more inclusive now or to face democratic failures tomorrow.

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