Title: Assimilation and anti-Semitism: Jews in France from 1890-1939

Name: Joseph Kelly

Student Number: 11170843

Name of Course: HI 439

Name of Course Convenor: Dr. Gearóid Barry

Word Count: 2223

Due Date: 07/10/2014

To begin to look at the complex issues arising from the divisions created in France due to xenophobia, we need to go back to the formation of the French republic. When French citizens overthrew the monarchy they were adamant that France would be tolerant of all of its citizens regardless of their political or religious views. Thomas Paine’s Rights of man and citizen (1789) was intended to be the basis of France’s …show more content…

Even with the amount of refugees and immigrants in France there was still gaps needing to be filled in the labour market.
To fill the gaps the government made a crucial decision to bring in further immigrants from their colonial African nations. Once the government had brought in the immigrants from Africa they expected French communities to support them until they were posted to a place for employment. This expectation on the public added to further strain on both resources and anti-Semitism. With the amount of immigrants and foreigners in France to make up for the vacant French who were away fighting the war, the government realised that they needed to get a handle on the situation and rethink the way they administered the growing immigrant population. The government began to set out new criteria that immigrants would have to meet in order to stay in France. The government felt it necessary for French security to determine ‘who was to be included and, alternatively, who was to be excluded from the nation?’6
With the end of the war, French soldiers were anxious upon returning, thinking they were going to have to compete with the cheaper immigrant labour force. The French had over 1.3 million soldiers dead which still meant that the French citizens