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Why did some foreign volunteers leave the French Foreign Legion for regular French units during World War I?

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French Foreign Legion soldiers in uniform with white hats and rifles stand in formation during a Bastille Day parade on the Champs Elysees in Paris. — French Foreign Legion Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion in a parade celebrating Bastille Day in Paris.

During World War I, the French Foreign Legion experienced significant internal friction due to the influx of large numbers of foreign volunteers who had arrived to fight for republican principles. These new recruits, along with Jewish refugees from tsarist pogroms, struggled to integrate with the grizzled veterans of France’s colonial wars.

This situation was further exacerbated by initial attempts to organize these newer volunteers into nationally homogeneous units, which led to severe morale problems, including mutinies in some battalions during the 1915 Artois offensive. Consequently, facing these internal challenges and political pressure from foreign governments, the French authorities in Paris permitted many of these foreign volunteers to transfer into regular French units.1