France tightened naturalization requirements without officially abandoning assimilation policy

Evidence

Intensifying racism in France did not, in the end, lead to a rescinding of the naturalization decrees. To its credit, the Third Republic could not-or would not-officially abandon its policy of selective assimilation. But the colonial minister and the Government General did together revise the 19I2 and 1918 decrees in I932 in order to stiffen considerably the requirements for African applicants. At first glance, their most notable innovation was that the citizenship granted would no longer be strictly personal, but would include the applicant’s extended family (illegitimate children too). This apparent liberalization compared to the I 9 I 2 decree was, however, more than offset by another proviso. In order to qualify, the individual African and his wife and children now had to prove, according to rigorously defined criteria, that they all were culturally French. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 585