ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the history of France's attitudes to and conceptions of migrants in the post-War period and examines the ways in which migrants rights and experiences have been shaped by changes in discourse on immigration. It explores the debate over the creation of a post-national citizenship, and argues that current attitudes and policies towards immigration show in fact the limits of the development of such a post-national citizenship status. Republican conceptions of the nation also, however, indicated the need for a high degree of cultural unity, and it was here that contradictions began to arise. French attitudes to and policies towards immigration can be seen as paradoxical in that whilst in perception and in reality France has been one of the foremost countries of immigration in Europe. A complexity of factors has continued to impact upon immigration policy as well as more generally on French attitudes to immigration, nationality and citizenship.
