French nationality law is historically based on the principles of
jus soliJus soli , also known as birthright citizenship, is a right by which nationality or citizenship can be recognized to any individual born in the territory of the related state...
(Latin for "right of soil"), according to
Ernest RenanErnest Renan was a French expert of Middle East ancient languages and civilizations, philosopher and writer, devoted to his native province of Brittany...
's definition, in opposition to the
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
's definition of nationality,
Jus sanguinisIus sanguinis is a social policy by which citizenship is not determined by place of birth, but by having a parent who are citizens of the nation...
(Latin for "right of blood"), formalized by Fichte.
The 1993
MéhaigneriePierre Méhaignerie is a French politician. He is presently deputy of the Ille-et-Vilaine's 5th constituency and mayor of Vitré...
Law required children born in France of foreign parents to request French nationality at adulthood, rather than being automatically accorded citizenship. This "manifestation of will" requirement was subsequently abrogated by the
GuigouÉlisabeth Guigou is a French Socialist politician.-Biography:After attending ENA, France's elite graduate school of public affairs, she worked on Jacques Delors' staff in 1982 before being hired by Hubert Védrine in François Mitterrand's...
Law of 1998, but children born in France of foreign parents remain foreign until obtaining legal majority.
As in most other countries, but unlike the United States, children born in France to tourists or short-term visitors do not acquire French citizenship by virtue of birth in France: residency must be proven. As immigration became more and more of a political theme in the 1980s, albeit accompanied by a lower immigration rate (
see Demographics in France), both left-wing and right-wing governments have issued several laws restricting more and more the possibilities of being
naturalizedNaturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
.
Attribution of French nationality
- The attribution
Attribution may refer to:Something, such as a quality or characteristic, that is related to a particular possessor; an attribute.*Attribution , concept in copyright law requiring an author to be credited...
of French nationality due to filiationIn law, paternity is the legal acknowledgment of the parental relationship between a man and a child usually based on several factors.At common law, a child born to the wife during a marriage is the husband's child under the "presumption of legitimacy", and the husband is assigned complete rights,...
. (Jus sanguinisIus sanguinis is a social policy by which citizenship is not determined by place of birth, but by having a parent who are citizens of the nation...
)
- The attribution
Attribution may refer to:Something, such as a quality or characteristic, that is related to a particular possessor; an attribute.*Attribution , concept in copyright law requiring an author to be credited...
of French nationality by birth in FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(Jus soliJus soli , also known as birthright citizenship, is a right by which nationality or citizenship can be recognized to any individual born in the territory of the related state...
) if other requirements (such as residence in France) are also met.
Filiation
Plenary adoption is the only act of filiation which carries direct effects on nationality. Unlike the process of simple adoption, a child adopted according to the procedure of plenary adoption breaks any bond with his family of origin.
Filiation must be established while the child is a
minorIn law, a minor is a person under a certain age — the age of majority — which legally demarcates childhood from adulthood; the age depends upon jurisdiction and application, but is typically 18...
to take effect. Consequently, the recognition of a child older than the
age of majorityThe age of majority is the threshold of adulthood as it is conceptualized in law. It is the chronological moment when minors cease to legally be considered children and assume control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thereby terminating the legal control and legal responsibilities of...
has no effect on his or her nationality.
Birth in France
Children born in France (including overseas territories) to at least one parent who is also born in France automatically acquire French citizenship at birth (
double jus soli).
A child born in France to foreign parents may acquire French citizenship:
- at birth, if stateless.
- at 18, if resident in France with at least 5 years' residence since age 11.
- at 16 upon request by the child and if resident in France.
- at 13 upon request by the child's parents and if resident in France.
- if born in France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
of parents born before independence in a colony/territory in the past under French sovereignty.
- at birth, if born in France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
before January 1, 1994.
- at age 18, if born in France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
on or after January 1, 1994.
A child who was born abroad and who has only one French parent can repudiate his French nationality during the six months prior to his or her reaching the age of majority, or in the year which follows it (article 19-4 of the Civil Code).
List of past colonies/territories
List of Past colonies/territories and their dates of independence/transfer
| Past colonies/territories |
Date of independence or transfer |
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
|
3 July 1962 (effect of independence on nationality is 1 January 1963) |
BéninBenin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
(ex DahomeyDahomey was a country in west Africa in what is now the Republic of Benin. The Kingdom of Dahomey was a powerful west African state that was founded in the seventeenth century and survived until 1894. From 1894 until 1960 Dahomey was a part of French West Africa. The independent Republic of Dahomey...
) |
1 August 1960 |
Burkina FasoBurkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
(ex Upper VoltaThe Republic of Upper Volta was established on December 11, 1958, as a self-governing colony within the French Community. Before attaining autonomy it had been French Upper Volta and part of the French Union. On August 5, 1960 it attained full independence from France.Thomas Sankara came to power...
) |
5 August 1960 |
Central African RepublicThe Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...
(ex Oubangui-ChariOubangui-Chari, or Ubangi-Shari, was a French territory in central Africa which later became the independent Central African Republic . French activity in the area began in 1889 with the establishment of an outpost at Bangui, now the capital of CAR. The territory was named in 1894.In 1903, French...
) |
13 August 1960 |
| Chandannagar Chandannagar, formerly known as Chandernagore or Chandernagar , is a small city and former French colony located north of Kolkata, in West Bengal, India. It is head quarters of a subdivision in Hooghly District. It is one of the 6 municipal corporations in West Bengal. It is a part of the area...
|
2 February 1951 (independence effect 9 June 1952) |
ComorosThe Comoros , officially the Union of the Comoros is an archipelago island nation in the Indian Ocean, located off the eastern coast of Africa, on the northern end of the Mozambique Channel, between northeastern Mozambique and northwestern Madagascar...
(except MayotteMayotte is an overseas department and region of France consisting of a main island, Grande-Terre , a smaller island, Petite-Terre , and several islets around these two. The archipelago is located in the northern Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean, namely between northwestern Madagascar and...
) |
December 1975 (independence effect 11 April 1976) |
| Congo-Brazzaville |
15 August 1960 |
Côte d'IvoireThe Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
|
7 August 1960 |
DjiboutiDjibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...
(ex Territoire français des Afars et des Issas) |
27 July 1977 |
GabonGabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...
|
17 August 1960 |
GuineaGuinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
|
1 October 1958 |
| Karikal (ex Établissement français de l'Inde) |
28 May 1956 (independence effect 16 August 1962) |
MadagascarThe Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
|
26 June 1960 |
| Mahé (ex Établissement français de l'Inde) |
28 May 1956 (independence effect 16 August 1962) |
MaliMali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
(ex French SudanFrench Sudan was a colony in French West Africa that had two separate periods of existence, first from 1890 to 1899, then from 1920 to 1960, when the territory became the independent nation of Mali.-Colonial establishment:...
) |
20 June 1960 |
MauritaniaMauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
|
28 November 1960 |
NigerNiger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
|
3 August 1960 |
| Pondichéry (ex Établissement français de l'Inde) |
28 May 1956 (independence effect 16 August 1962) |
SenegalSenegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
|
20 June 1960 |
ChadChad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
|
11 August 1960 |
VanuatuVanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...
|
31 July 1980 |
VietnamVietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
|
16 August 1954 (independence effect the 1 June 1949) |
| Yanaon (ex Établissement français de l'Inde) |
28 May 1956 (independence effect 16 August 1962) |
Naturalisation
A person aged 18 or above may apply for French citizenship by naturalisation after five years' habitual and continuous residence in France (if married and with children, then the applicant must be living in France with his/her family). In addition, it is required that the applicant has his/her primary source of income in France during the five year period. Those applying who are not
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
,
European Economic AreaThe European Economic Area was established on 1 January 1994 following an agreement between the member states of the European Free Trade Association and the European Community, later the European Union . Specifically, it allows Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to participate in the EU's Internal...
or Swiss nationals are required to be in possession of a "titre de séjour" (a residence permit).
- The residence period may be completely waived:
- for citizens of countries where French is one of the official languages (if French is their mother tongue or if they have spent at least five years in a school/in education under the medium of French)
- for those who used to be French, are no longer French and desire to have their French nationality restored
- for refugees
- for those who have served in the French military.
- Only two years' residence is required for those who have completed two years of higher education in France.
Naturalisation will only be successful for those who are judged to have integrated into French society (i.e. by virtue of language skills and understanding of rights and responsibilities of a French citizen, to be demonstrated during an interview at the local prefecture), and who show loyalty to French institutions.
Naturalisation through residency is accorded by publication of a decree in the Journal Officiel by decision of the Ministry of Labour, Social Cohesion and Housing. There is an obligatory delay of 18 months from the date of submission before the applicant is notified of the result of his/her naturalisation application.
Through parentage (right of blood)
The child (legitimate or natural) is French if at least one parent is French.
In the case of an adoption, the child has French nationality only under the “full adoption” regime.
Nationality through parentage must be established while the child is still a minor (under 18).
Through birth in France (law of place of birth)
The child (legitimate or natural) is French if born in France to at least one parent also born in France.
Simply being born in France does not confer French nationality except in the case of a child born to unknown or stateless parents, or to aliens whose nationality is not transmitted to the child.
A child born in France before January 1, 1994, to a parent born in a former French overseas territory prior to its acquisition of independence, is automatically French. The same is true for a child born after 1 January 1963, to a parent born in Algeria before July 3, 1962.
Through marriage
You may be able to apply for French nationality if your spouse is French and you can prove that you have been married for five years and that you live together or four years of marriage if the French spouse is registered since at least four years at the Consulate General of France in New York.(article 79 of law 2006-911 published in the JO of 25/07/2006). You must also have a good knowledge of the French language, spoken and written. The couple must appear in person together to sign documents.
French Citizenship and identity
According to the French Republic, the French people are those who are in possession of French nationality. According to the French Constitution, "France shall be an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic. It shall ensure the equality of all citizens before the law, without distinction of origin, race or religion. It shall respect all beliefs. It shall be organised on a decentralised basis."
Article 1
Since the middle of the 19th century, France has exhibited a very high rate of immigration, mainly from Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Maghreb, Africa and Asia. According to a 2004 report by
INEDThe Institut national d'études démographiques is a French research institute specialized in demography and population studies in general.-A research institute founded in 1945:...
researcher Michèle Tribalat France has approximately 14 million persons (out of nearly 63 million) (see
demographics of FranceThis article is about the demographic features of the population of France, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects....
) of foreign ascendancy (immigrants or with at least one parent or great-parent immigrant).
The absence of official statistics on French citizens of foreign origin is not coincidental. The idea of French
ethnicity is not one which informs mainstream discourse in France. Under French law passed after the
Vichy regimeVichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
, it is forbidden to categorize people according to their ethnic origins. In France, as in many European countries, censuses do not collect information on supposed ancestry. Moreover, all French
statisticsStatistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
are forbidden to have any references concerning ethnic membership. Thus, the French government's assimilationist stance towards immigration as well as towards regional identities and cultures, together with the political heritage of the French revolution has led to the development of a French identity which is based more on the notion of citizenship than on cultural, historical or ethnic ties.
For this reason, French identity must not necessarily be associated with the "ethnic
French peopleThe French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
", but can be associated with either a nationality and citizenship, or a culture and language-based group. The latter forms the basis for
La FrancophonieFrancophonie is an international organization of politics and governments with French as the mother or customary language, where a significant proportion of people are francophones , or where there is a notable affiliation with the French language or culture.Formally known as the Organisation...
, a group of French-speaking countries, or countries with historical and cultural association to France. The concept of "French ethnicity" exists outside France's borders, in particular in
QuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
where some people claim membership to a "French ethnic group", but here again many view it as not so much ethnicity-based as language-based, and would also include immigrants from, for example, Haiti. France's particular self-perception means that French identity may include a naturalized, French-speaking ethnic Portuguese or Algerian. Nonetheless, like in other European countries, some level of discrimination does occur, and there is higher unemployment rates among job-seekers with foreign-sounding names.
Rights and obligations of French citizens
In modern France in general the rights are fundamentally the same as those in other EU countries.
Despite this official discourse of universality, French nationality has not meant automatic citizenship. Some categories of French people have been excluded, throughout the years, from full citizenship:
- Women: until the Liberation, they were deprived of the right to vote. The provisional government
The Provisional Government of the French Republic was an interim government which governed France from 1944 to 1946, following the fall of Vichy France and prior to the Fourth French Republic....
of General de GaulleCharles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
accorded them this right by the April 21, 1944 prescription. A law passed on June 6, 2000 attempted to address the economic disparity between men and women.
- Military
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
: for a long time, it was named the Grande muette ("The Big Mute") in reference to its prohibition from interfering in political life. During a large part of the Third RepublicThe French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
(1871–1940), the Army was in its majority anti-republicanRepublicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
(and thus counterrevolutionaryA counter-revolutionary is anyone who opposes a revolution, particularly those who act after a revolution to try to overturn or reverse it, in full or in part...
). The Dreyfus AffairThe Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
and the May 16, 1877 crisis that led to a monarchist coup d'étatA coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
by MacMahon, are examples of this anti-republican spirit. Therefore, they would gain the right to vote only with the August 17, 1945 prescription: the contribution of De Gaulle to the interior French ResistanceThe French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
reconciled the Army with the Republic. Nevertheless, militaries do not benefit from the whole of public liberties, as the July 13, 1972 law on the general statute of militaries specify.
- Young people: the July 1974 law instituted at the instigation of president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
reduced to 18 years the coming of age, which thus made of these teenagers full citizens.
- Naturalized foreigners
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
. Since January 9, 1973, foreigners who have acquired French nationality do not have to wait five years after their naturalization to be able to vote.
- Inhabitants of the colonies
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...
. The May 7, 1946 law meant that soldiers from the "Empire" (such as the tirailleurs) killed during World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
were not citizens.
Furthermore, some authors who have insisted on the "crisis of the nation-state" allege that nationality and citizenship are becoming separate concepts. They show as example "
international----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...
", "supranational citizenship" or "world citizenship" (membership to
transnational----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...
organizations, such as
Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
or
GreenpeaceGreenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
NGOs). This would indicate a path toward a "postnational citizenship".
Beside this, modern citizenship is linked to civic participation (also called positive freedom), which design voting,
demonstrationsA demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
,
petitionA petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer....
s,
activismActivism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
, etc. Therefore,
social exclusionSocial exclusion is a concept used in many parts of the world to characterise contemporary forms of social disadvantage. Dr. Lynn Todman, director of the Institute on Social Exclusion at the Adler School of Professional Psychology, suggests that social exclusion refers to processes in which...
may lead to deprive one of his/her citizenship. This has led various authors (
Philippe Van ParijsPhilippe Van Parijs is a Belgian philosopher and political economist, mainly known as a proponent and main defender of the basic income concept.-Education:...
,
Jean-Marc FerryJean-Marc Ferry is a French philosopher who is best known for his book Les puissances de l'expérience , described by Paul Ricoeur as "one of the most important works recently published in the field of social and political philosophy"...
, Alain Caillé,
André GorzAndré Gorz , pen name of Gérard Horst, born Gerhard Hirsch, also known by his pen name Michel Bosquet, was an Austrian and French social philosopher. Also a journalist, he co-founded Le Nouvel Observateur weekly in 1964...
) to theorize a
guaranteed minimum incomeGuaranteed minimum income is a system of social welfare provision that guarantees that all citizens or families have an income sufficient to live on, provided they meet certain conditions. Eligibility is typically determined by citizenship, a means test and either availability for the labour...
which would impede exclusion from citizenship.
Dual citizenship
Dual citizenship has been permitted since 1973. Possession of one or more other nationalities, does not, in principle, affect the French nationality. France denounced the Chapter I of the
Convention of the Council of EuropeThe European Convention on Nationality is a comprehensive convention of the Council of Europe dealing with the law of nationality....
on May 6, 1963 as an aim of reduction of Cases of Multiple Nationality and Military Obligations in Cases of Multiple Nationality. The denunciation took effect March 5, 2009.
Denaturalisation
According to philosopher
Giorgio AgambenGiorgio Agamben is an Italian political philosopher best known for his work investigating the concepts of the state of exception and homo sacer....
, France was one of the first European countries to pass denaturalisation laws, in 1915, with regard to naturalized citizens of "enemy" origins. Its example was followed by most European countries.
As soon as July 1940,
Vichy FranceVichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
set up a special Commission charged of reviewing the
naturalizationNaturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
s granted since the 1927 reform of the nationality law. Between June 1940 and August 1944, 15,000 persons, mostly Jews, were denaturalized. This bureaucratic decision was instrumental in their subsequent internment.
External links
- Acquiring another Citizenship (France) (archived from the original on 2007-08-07)
- official website of the CIMADE
The Cimade is a French NGO founded at the beginning of the WWII by French Protestant student groups, in particular the Christian activist and member of the French Resistance Madeleine Barot, to give assistance and support to people uprooted by war, in the first instance those who were evacuated...
, an ecumenistEcumenism or oecumenism mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater Christian unity or cooperation. It is used predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice...
NGO helping immigrants (including illegal immigrants) in their juridical demands.
- GISTI ("Groupe d'Information et de Soutien aux Travailleurs Immigrés" (same: "Group of Information and Support of Immigrants Workers", although they also carry more directly activist actions, such as blocking controversial expelling by charter, mainly by informing all passengers of the plane: as the pilot is the only authority on board, he may refuse to embark an illegal alien, thus blocking police's attempts)
- CITIZENSHIP IN FRANCE.; A NEW LAW WHICH CLASHES WITH AMERICAN IDEAS." The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
- August 6, 1889
- Further information: :fr:Nationalité française