--Foreign attitudes
The French colonial effort was centered around the French-ification of the colonized. Even today, the attitude of the French towards their immigrant population is hugely different from the American one. Whereas Mexican immigrants are still Mexican in the United States, French immigrants become French when they immigrate.
The present-day French attitude towards immigration is different from that of the immediate post-war period. Even though France, since 1973, has not encouraged immigration (and, for some periods of time, positively discouraged it) to France, its political attitude towards foreigners is not xenophobic like in the United States. (This is not to say that there are no xenophobes in France; there is widespread xenophobic sentiment, at least according to Ms. Guiraudon.)
In her paper, Ms. Guiraudon obliquely refers to the growing globalization that has slowly been expressing itself in Europe. When hundreds of Kurdish immigrants were beached on French shores, the British were upset because they suspected that the Kurds would be headed to Great Britain. That is to say, France's coast is the last stronghold of European integrity. France's politicians were then torn: to speak against illegal immigration or to express solidarity with the refugees? Their different reactions highlights the dual expression of France: France at home and France abroad, as part of a greater Europe.
One thing that may be of use--there is usually a self-reflexive moment in french philosophical thinking. I wonder if these guys owe anything to the Situationists we studied briefly with regards to May 1968.
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