The French are an ethnic group and nation who are identified with the country of France. This connection may be legal, historical, or cultural.
Historically the French people's heritage is diverse, including populations of Gauls, Ligures, Latins, Franks, Iberians, Alamans and Norsemen.[30] France has long been a patchwork of local customs and regional differences, and while most French people still speak the French language as their mother tongue, languages like Norman, Occitan, Catalan, Auvergnat, Corsican, Basque, French Flemish, Lorraine Franconian, Alsatian and Breton remain spoken in their respective regions.
Modern French society is a melting pot.[31] From the middle of the 19th century, it experienced a high rate of inward migration and the government, defining France as an inclusive nation with universal values, advocated assimilation through which immigrants were expected to adhere to French values and cultural norms. Nowadays, while the government has let newcomers retain their distinctive cultures since the mid-1980s and requires from them a mere integration,[32] French citizens still equate their nationality with citizenship as does French law.[33]
In addition to mainland France, French people and people of French descent can be found internationally, in overseas departments and territories of France such as the French West Indies (French Caribbean), and in foreign countries with significant French-speaking population groups or not, such as Switzerland (French Swiss), the United States (French Americans), Canada (French Canadians), Argentina (French Argentines), Brazil (French Brazilians), Chile (French Chileans) or Uruguay (French Uruguayans).[34][35]
