diverse yet divided The reality of segregation in france WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOACHIM FERNANDEZ
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port has always been a medium for national pride and victory in international competitions such as the Olympics aand the World Cup. The teams and athletes that play in these competitions represent the whole of a nation. With the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, it was the French team that earned such prestige. The team was one of the competition’s most diverse, including a mix of players of European descent, but mostly players of African and North descent. When the French beat Croatia to win the most coveted trophy in football, the South African comedian Trevor Noah applauded the French victory as an African one on the American satirical news program, “The Daily Show.’ This didn’t sit well with France’s ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud. Araud responded to Noah with a statement, writing that, “France is indeed a cosmopolitan country, but every citizen is part of the French identity, together they belong to the nation of France. Unlike in the United States of America, France does not refer to its citizens by their race, religion, or origin. To us, there is no hyphenated identity, roots are an individual reality.”
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As an ambassador, Araud’s words represent the state. His words can be considered inclusive, working to solidify perceptions of France as a country which embraces its ethnic diversity and avoids discrimination. On the other hand, the state risks perpetuating an ignorant, or even apathetic, outlook toward the reality of the ethnic divide in its own country. France is a diverse country. There is colonial history, which has ensured that a large number of French nationals have ancestry ranging from North and Sub-Saharan Africa to South-East Asia and even Polynesia. Then there is the fact that France has continued to be a hot-bed for migration. In 2017, 83,674 immigrants were naturalized, 32,011 were granted asylum, 3,420,395 were issued visas and 262,000 were issued a titre de séjour. This excludes those residing in the country illegally, such as those living in make-shift tent villages around Paris or in migrant camps like those that existed in Calais. As for exactly how diverse the country’s population really is, it is impossible to know. In 1978, the French government made it illegal for any census or survey to reference race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. The idea was that if the state recognizes
