Gender, right-wing populism, and immigrant integration policies in France, 1989–2012

Abstract:

Immigrant integration has been on the political agenda in France since at least the late 1980s, yet starting in the early 2000s this issue became bound up with concerns about the oppression of minority women.

This article examines the evolution of the issue over two decades, pinpointing when and why debates over integration took on a gendered cast. The article’s explanation centres on two factors – the growing threat of the Front National coupled with the legitimation of gender-based claims in French politics.

These claims were embraced by conservative politicians seeking to adopt a harder line toward immigration and led to the refashioning of core Republican concepts such as égalité and laïcité as being about gender equality. The use of similar themes by the Front National as it has sought to move in from the political fringe reveals how gendered claims can be deployed in an effort to keep anti-immigrant policies within the boundaries of liberal values.