Global economic change and the (re)construction of French and British national identity, 1960--1992

The dissertation examines the effect of economic globalization in the period 1960--1992 upon the discursive constructions of national identity in France and the United Kingdom, in relation to immigrant populations. The dissertation argues that changes in the global economy (such as the globalization of production, trade, and finance) have destabilized economic constructions of national identity built upon a conception of the state as an economic producer and provider and led political actors to emphasize the cultural and territorial integrity of the state as a basis for national identity. Representations of immigrants in parliamentary documents and the national press have accordingly changed from a primarily economic construction of immigrants as laborers and recipients of social services to a largely political-cultural construction of immigrants as manipulators of immigration law and as culturally alien beings.