People

France is the most ethnically diverse country of Europe. A crossroads since prehistoric times, the country’s 'historic populations' were a blend of European ethnic stocks, Celtic (Gallic and Breton), Aquitanian (related to Basque), Latin and Germanic. Over the past 200 years, France has been unusual among European states in periodically attracting large-scale immigration. In the nineteenth century, the new populations that arrived, forebears of 40 percent of today’s inhabitants, included southern Europeans, Belgians, Poles, Armenians, East European and Maghrebi Jews, Maghrebi Arabs and Berbers, sub-Saharan Africans and Chinese. After World War II, large-scale immigration to France initially came mainly from southern Europe and subsequently from France’s former colonial possessions, especially North Africa. Other ethnic minorities from the French colonial empire, apart from North African Muslims, are the Indochinese and francophone sub-Saharan Africans.


Language

The national language is French. Some rapidly declining regional dialects and languages also are spoken, including Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Flemish and Provençal. French derived from the vernacular Latin spoken by the Romans in Gaul. Historically, French served as the international language of diplomacy, and it remains a unifying force in parts of the world, chiefly, Africa.

Religion

Between 83 percent and 90 percent of the French population is Roman Catholic and only 2 percent Protestant. The rate of religious practice among the nominally Catholic population is very low. France also has a Jewish minority of about 1 percent, a Muslim minority of 5-10 percent, and about 4 percent unaffiliated. France’s Muslim population is the largest in Europe. France lacks official statistics on religion, a fact that reflects the country’s commitment to the religious neutrality of the state, or laïcité, considered necessary for religious freedom. Faced with antidemocratic pressures from the Catholic Church in the early decades of the Third Republic, France promulgated a law in 1905 calling for the strict separation of church and state. The government has since reaffirmed this law, with, for example, a controversial March 2004 bill that banned the display of all conspicuous religious symbols in public schools. This ban targeted in particular the wearing of headscarves by Muslim girls in public schools. The government maintains that the wearing of religious symbols threatens the country’s secular identity, while others contend that the ban on symbols curtails religious freedom.

France currently seeks to encourage the emergence of a 'French Islam'. In 2002, the government set up the French Council for the Islamic Faith based on the model of the Consistoire for Jews created in 1808. The government also has called on private divinity schools to train tolerant homegrown imams who can compete

with more militant foreign imams. At present, fewer than 20 percent of France’s approximately 1,600 imams have French citizenship, only a third speak French with ease, and half of those who receive regular pay receive it from foreign sources, mainly Algerian, Moroccan, Turkish, and Saudi. Many imams work in unknown 'backyard mosques', a concern for both security agencies and Muslim leaders.