There are many people who immigrate to America every day. Some do it for a change in economic, political, or social reasons. Probably the most commonly used reason would be that we have a beautiful nation, with people who stick together through the good and the bad. In April of 1987, Lawrence Maillard immigrated to America from her hometown of Bergerac, France. It wasn't that she didn't love her own country. Her family and friends lived there then and remain there to this day. But her husband was a United States citizen, and the U.S. was where they decided to settle. .
At the time of Lawrence's marriage, of the 60 million people living in France, about 50,000 people were emigrating from there annually. Approximately half of the people that were emigrating were coming to America. Unlike the U.S., France has a multi-party political system, often resulting in surprising coalitions and swings in political leadership views. When Lawrence was born, Charles DeGaulle was president of France (1959-69). He was probably one of the most well known politicians of the present time. He was an intelligent, hard-working soldier in his youth. In World War I, he fought at Verdun. He was wounded three times and held as a prisoner of war for almost three years. He survived though, and in 1959, he was elected president of the Republic. Until 1962, he was the only hope of ending the Algerian war, but it prevented him from doing any more than preparing a way for future positive politics. At the time Lawrence immigrated from France, Francois Mitterand was president (1981-95). He was the first socialist president of the French Republic. He had accomplished the extension and the reinforcement of local freedoms and freedom of expression, the modernization of the penal code, and the abolition of the death penalty throughout his term and his still known for what he did for France. France's current president is President Jacques Chirac who has already done a good job serving in office once before, winning once again by a landslide victory.
