The contemporary uses of the 'values of the Republic' in the French naturalisation process

The state promotion of 'common values' in public discourses and policies as a response to a so-called 'crisis of immigrant integration' has become a widespread phenomenon in contemporary European societies. This article analyses how shared values are promoted by the French state in the implementation of migration policies, and whether such promotion introduces anything new in the approach to immigrant integration. Our analysis concentrates on the recent reconfiguration of 'assimilation interviews' in the French naturalisation process. Once essentially aimed at measuring applicants' fluency in French, since 2011 the interviews are meant to test applicants' 'adhesion to the values of the French Republic'. Drawing on an empirically informed analysis of the French naturalisation policy, we show that the emphasis placed on adhesion to the 'values of the Republic' has contributed to a twofold process of moralisation of citizenship which fuels state intrusion into private lives, and of culturalisation of citizenship which nourishes ethnocultural stereotypes against Muslims. By contrast with arguments that associate the case of France to merely 'civic' conceptions of integration, we show that the French promotion of common values does give ground to a culturally-oriented state perfectionism that builds on past institutional practices and ideas about national integration.