NATIONAL IDENTITY AND IMMIGRATION IN MODERN FRANCE

National identity is one of the most pressing themes in the socio-political discourse in modem France. The current sense of identity crisis is associated with the processes of globalisation, the unification of culture on a global scale, the building of a European identity within the EU, as well as with the incoming mass migration of non-European origin which brings in people different from the local French population in terms of both culture and religion. The impact of these factors, especially migration, has become so tangible it necessitated a new understanding of the very meaning of the concept of 'national identity'. This meaning is conceived of differently from different ideological perspectives which the article undertakes to analyse drawing on various sources including press publications and online comments, Internet portals of a number of public organisations, social sciences literature, and other texts. It identifies and examines two main models of national identity, discussing their content and interpretation, and concludes that the issues of interpretation of identity go far beyond theoretical debates, turning out to be ideological and, ultimately, political, and the future that the country aspires to depends on how these issues are understood.