It is an extraordinary source of vitality. This colorful youth has come into our old Parisian museum and shaken up the coconut trees. Even as these immigrant groups are bringing their special style to the new France, indigenous regional cultures have seen a resurgence of their own, formerly suppressed, identities. This revival is marked by the proliferation of Basque and Breton-language schools, the rising popularity of Celtic music, the boom of regional tourism, the cult of local cuisines and the spread of provincial festivals that borrow as much from global trends as they do from ancestral traditions. The downside, in areas like Corsica and Brittany, is the persistence of a militant separatism that occasionally flares into violence.
Many French observers look with trepidation at the rise of multiculturalism.
It killed the local languages. It created equality between French citizens. It avoided the danger of different, competing communities. There is a risk of that now, because of decentralization and the weakening of the state. Yet not all communities see France as an equal opportunity melting pot.