Oh, the French....

As an American, it was very difficult to understand France’s approach to immigration and French identity. Hearing the diplomat say things like “It’s okay to study another language, as long as you also speak French,” was a huge shock since generally any reference to a “national language” is seen as politically incorrect in the United States. The diplomat highlighted the fact that it was always “French first”. He went into detail explaining that even if you are not ethnically French, to be a proper French citizen you must call yourself “French” over your country of origin, birth, or nationality. This was very strange to me because growing up in the U.S. I became accustomed to answering the typical “What are you?” or “Where are you from?” questions by saying either Arab, Syria, or Arab-American, respectively. In the U.S., people of other ethnicities typically identify themselves first with their country of origin usually paired with “American” (African-American, Arab-American, Latin-American). I could tell by the perplexed looks on everyone else’s faces that they were pretty shocked and confused too.
Additionally, the stance on Arabic/North-African Muslim immigration particularly disturbed me since it was a little personal. Sure, they can claim that the ban on the Niqab and Burka was to assimilate women of all ethnicities to engage with each other and to promote fairness and equality to oppressed Muslim women, but many would agree that this was simply a move to discourage and impede immigration from that demographic. Criticism for French immigration policies is nothing new, and I fear this ban may lead to more controversial policies intended to prevent Arabic/Islamic culture to mesh into the national French identity, such as a ban on the Hijab.
France’s unique national identity, and their stance on its preservation, seems to dim out other cultures in an attempt to maintain their own. While this approach to national identity is not unique France, it is strange to see an extremely democratized, western state take such measures.