The red, white and blue

The subject of nationality in France has become a hot-button topic for the upcoming presidential elections. Nicolas Sarkozy wants a ministry of immigration and national identity, while Segolene Royal thinks every French family should have a French flag in their home. My host dad asked me tonight why so many Americans have American flags in their homes. To the French, this idea is absolutely bizarre.

I compared the 4th of July to Bastille Day and asked him if it was a big national holiday here (which of course I knew it was - I was just hoping for more details about how they celebrate it). All I really know is that the French aren't decked out in red, white and blue on Bastille Day like Americans are on the 4th of July. I'm guessing that means no one sells baseball caps with French flags on them, either.

My Islam in France professor had also brought up the subject recently and had asked us the same thing: why do so many Americans have flags? To be honest, I never thought of Americans as being particularly flag-waving all year round. My family only brings out tiny flags for our garden in July, and that's about it. I don't really know many military families, but in terms of the civilian families I know, no one hangs the stars and stripes above their mantelpiece all year round.

Americans can be very patriotic, there's no question about that. The flag hype has died down considerably since September 11, as I told my host dad, but the American flag is definitely more visible in the States than the French flag is here. According to my host dad, you really only see the French flag flying at government buildings. After thinking about it for a little while, I realized that you really do see the American flag flying at random places - office buildings, schools, shopping centers even. I rarely see a French flag here.

I don't know if the French think we're too patriotic or not, but the big difference I see here is how nationalistic the French are. There has been more of a debate lately over what makes America America, whether it's making English the official language or adjusting immigration laws, but the U.S. doesn't have nearly as many problems with immigrants as the French do. Yeah, lots of my family members get angry when they hear people speaking another language when they're out somewhere, but that feeling is more frustration at not knowing what those people are saying than dislike.

But it's totally different in France; I can see the dichotomy between the Arabs and Africans and the white French. France is having an identity crisis, and one of the presidential candidates wants to make a ministry dealing with "national identity." What is national identity? How can a selected group of people determine what that is? In a world where globalization is pretty hard to hide from, the idea is just ludicrous. My country has plenty of faults, but compared to the French, I think we have the better end of the deal on this issue. Obviously the U.S. is very different from France in this area because it was a country built on immigration - it can be nothing but a melting pot. Yes, there has been discrimination against certain ethnic groups who came to the U.S. at different times (who could imagine discriminating against the Irish now?), and we have our own problems now. Maybe we're seen as so patriotic because the one thing we all have in common is that - our flag and what it represents.

France has hundreds of years of history, much more than the U.S. has, and with that comes different sets of circumstances. Most of the immigrants France receives are from its former colonies in Africa, so there are already underlying issues from colonial times that have not been dealt with yet. These countries were considered part of French territory in the early 20th century, yet the native peoples were not considered French citizens. Some of them who have moved to France aren't considered citizens now due to citizenship laws that have changed.

But if France wants to keep its spot as a nation of influence in the world - which has been shaky at best in the last few decades - its leaders need to accept that as the world becomes smaller and smaller, definitions of cultural identity will expand and change. What does it mean to be French? I don't think it's anything different from what it means to be American.