For the nationals of a country, society makes progress slowly, but it does make progress, witness the PACS vote in France, but the notion of the family in the case of immigrants is inflexible.
For landenes egne statsborgere udvikler familiebegrebet sig langsomt, men det udvikler sig trods alt. Eksempelvis kan nævnes vedtagelsen af loven om registrerede parforhold i Frankrig.