France and the United States seem like they could not be more different. One has a 35 hour work week, socialism, most businesses close on Sundays, and is the winner of the 2018 Men’s World Cup. The other has an overworked population, privatized services, 24 hour everything, and didn’t qualify for the World Cup. However, the two countries have more common that it may appear especially when it comes to an issue that affects society in general and soccer as a sport - immigration.
Politically, the right and even the center in each country constructs immigration as a blank slate on which to project national anxieties by painting immigrants as threats to national security, burdens on social programs, and polluting cultural identity.