I wouldn't be very surprised if these constituencies started mattering more than the normal guys ones.
Before the Gendarme comes back...
I see Italian and French International Congresspeople in quite a different way. First, Italy has a not so old emigration tradition (I'm comparing with the first European settlers) and this people tends to maintain a strong relation with their original country. My greatgrandfather came from Italy, yet my mother's generation is still identifiable as Italo-Brazilian and some of my cousins, despite not having the strong culturally Italian behaviour anymore, hold Italian citizenship. The same happens in Argentina, Uruguay, Canada and the USA. Those who remained in Europe don't have, in the other hand, the penchant for cultural homogeneity one can historically find amongst Germans, so there is a weaker feeling of apartness from the communities abroad. Hence, the matter of international constituencies in Italy may be interpreted as sentimentalism, and so, as You put, farcical.
The matter of French International Constituencies must be another, unless We believe they want to bring Quebecois, Acadiens, Cajuns, exiled people's children born in France, all back to Maman Marianne. It makes much more sense to interpret this as a way to give space at interior matters policies to this caste of upper-middle and upper class people who lives abroad working with the operation of financial matters. Sure, I see I'm exaggerating the impact of these people in the bulk of French people abroad, for the sake of a good storytelling, but I still won't be surprised If, in the future, this stopped being marginal.
The notion that citizens living far abroad and not intending to return home in the short run nonetheless have an interest in the composition of the national assembly, while those actually affected by it on a daily basis and paying taxes for its upkeep but who are not citizens should not be, is the notion that a country is basically a company and citizenship is basically a share. Next thing you'll be demanding dividends out of the treasury.
And sure enough, Western countries have no problems with the international upper middle class aquiring shares in multiple countries, but are very against third world immigrants doing so.
The notion just screams "I like Representative Government but have an exterminatory hatred of Democracy" (it's not the same thing, you know.) Using single-member constituencies is just rubbing it in.
Hear hear! But I will say, I have an awful lot of French friends over here, and they're all pathetically poor teachers (redundant I know) who vote left-wing.
There are some of those here, too. They marry with locals and start having such kind of jobs as language teachers, chefs, gourmet bakers, or make their ways inside academy (what a Paris-N diploma can do for academical career...). But, when you go to São Paulo or Rio, It's basically about financial system and CEO's.
