Higher Colleges of Technology - Abu
Dhabi Men’s College
Final Project:
Understanding another Nation’s Culture
France
Fahad
Abdulaziz Al Awadi / ID:H00235068
Eissa
Mansour Al Jabberi / ID: H00 253604
Amira Abdulla Alfardan / ID: H00247821
Fakhra Abdulla AlMazrouei / ID: H00254862
France has been a major power with the
strong culture, wealthy history and political influence in Europe and all
around the world. France is a multicultural country, the features of France
show in demographic, history of culture diversity and the ethnic and minority
groups, that what will show it in the next paragraphs.
History of culture diversity in France depend
on the Roman Empire and the immigration from North Africa countries especially
Algeria. After the Roman Empire fall, many of European such as Germanic
specific the Franks was mixed with the French people. Moreover, Algeria was
part of France until 1962, then it became independent country, a lot of
Algerian immigrates to France where they have some common with the French
society. The demographic features of the population of France include
population density and ethnicity. From 1713 to 1787 the population of France
was low nearly 65000, in 18th century to 19th the
population growth was quit slowly, it was low compared to the other countries,
also during the First World War and the Second it decline. On the other hand
after the World War II (20th) it's increased sharply. Now day's
statics shows that the population is over 64million, it includes French citizen
and even who born in France related to immigrant parents. Also, immigrants
people from Africa and Asia with varies religions which the percentage of
catholic is 83% -85%, Muslim 5% to 10%, protestant 2%- 4%, Jewish 1% -3% and
the unaffiliated is 2%. The most crowded city is Paris which is the capital,
Lyon, Nice and Marseille.
From the population of
France there are small groups which are the Catalans, Germans, Armenians,
Russians, Poles, and some others, the largest groups are Algerians (60%-70%),
Moroccans (45%-55%), Tunisians (25%-35%), and Turks (15%-25%). So the main
minority groups are Algeria and Moroccans who immigrants from many years ago in
specific 20th century which their country became independent after
all the European returned to Europe , also the most of the immigrants move to
south France cities such as Nice, Monaco and saint Tropez, because its near
their country which just the middle sea
separate between them also they moved to France to find better jobs and a
better life in future and find more freedom, especially in education and care
health sectors. They obey all the rules that the government put it for
immigrants and they try to be kind with dealing with the French society.
Besides that, minority groups have their own culture aspect,
such as language, food and celebrations, most of immigrants speak French or
English language, because they was learning French and English in their
country, also French language marked as the third language in the European
Union after English and German. Food is different from country to another, in
France give a large space to accept the varied food from many cultures, there
are Chinese, Indian, Moroccan and Turkish food courts
which attract many people to try it and it’s a successful project, in addition,
clothes of minority groups in France they don’t have freedom
for wearing their traditional dress, for
instance, Muslim women can’t wear "Hijaib" which it's the cover of
hair, moreover celebrations for minority groups are different from France
occasions, so they don’t take vocations or could celebrate in public for
example, Hijra new year for Muslims.
In France there are millions of ethnic groups who are
represented as minorities who searching for better life in a democratic
country, but on the other side they face problems with dealing with French
society members and the government, because they don’t give them all rights and
freedom. For example the "Niqab" which it's a cover face for Muslim
ladies and, they suffer from people treatment and many issues for that, add to
that, media and society organization start to convert it to a political case
which led the government to imposes fines for people who are not obeying the
unjustly rule. Internationally France was highlighted by rights group Amnesty
as discriminating against Muslims for demonstrating their faith especially in
the field of education and employment some other cultures in France get challenges
to integrate with the French society because their origins, there was one of
the questionnaires that media show it was about the
possibility of assimilation of cultures in France, generally the result show
the expressions and discrimination that French people used to say it about
ethnic group for example the idea that the government should not hire Muslim
people.
In a nutshell, France is a multicultural
country with huge number of ethnic groups that live on the same land. The governments put a lot of rules that help
to organize the country and benefit the people who live in France.
References:
France
Overview - system, power, Ethnic groups. (n.d.). Encyclopedia of the Nations
- Information about countries of the world, United Nations, and World Leaders.
Retrieved November 29, 2012, from http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/France.html
Languages
- France. (n.d.). Encyclopedia of the Nations - Information about countries
of the world, United Nations, and World Leaders. Retrieved November 29,
2012, from http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/France-LANGUAGES.html
Minority
Rights Group International : France : France Overview. (n.d.). Minority
Rights Group International : Homepage : home page. Retrieved November 29,
2012, from http://www.minorityrights.org/?lid=1622
Jenkins, Cecil. "history of
France." A History Of France. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2012. Fromwww.Amazon.com/A
History Of France
Wilde, Robert . "France
Demographics Profile 2012." Index Mundi - Country Facts. N.p., n.d.
Web. 29 Nov. 2012. From http://www.indexmundi.com/france/demographics
McCullough , David . "France:
Geography, History, Politics, and More — Infoplease.com." Infoplease —
Free Online Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, and more — Infoplease.com. N.p.,
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