User:OnBeyondZebrax/sandbox/French people

To be French is to be a citizen of France, regardless of one's origin, race, or religion, making France a generic territory where people are bound by the French language. Successive waves of immigrants during the 19th and 20th centuries were rapidly assimilated into French culture. Seeing itself as an inclusive nation with universal values, France has always valued and strongly advocated assimilation. However, the success of such assimilation has recently been called into question, for example, with the 2005 French riots in some troubled and impoverished suburbs (les quartiers sensibles).

Most French people speak the French language as their mother tongue, but certain languages like Norman, Occitan, Corsican, Euskara, French Flemish and Breton remain spoken in certain regions (see Language policy in France).