• Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.55-74
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• 2018

With the advent of multicultural society, many countries have come to the point of considering a fundamental revision or review of their previously established national identity and social constitution principles. This situation often generates conflicts and controversies between advocates of tradition and promotors of multiculturalism. In this article we will look at the case of France and Brazil and discuss how these two countries maintain, discard or fundamentally modify their traditional social integration model in the face of the multicultural challenges(racism, racial discrimination and integration/coexistence of immigrants of different cultural backgrounds), and examine the controversial aspects surrounding it. In particular, focusing our eyes on racial/ethnic statistics debates in both countries, we will try to compare the cases between that of adoption of multicultural alternative model(Brazil) and the case of rejection/retention(France) to find out some political meanings imbedded in those cases.