France, Immigration and Integration

The continuing riots in the French suburbs are being read as a story of the failed integration of immigrant Arabs and Muslims.  Anti-immigrant groups in this country have already begun to portray the events as a cautionary tale of the dangers of immigration.

But press reports make it clear that the violence has been spurred at least in part by the anti-immigrant sentiments repeatedly expressed by interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy.  (Read this New York Times story, for example.)  One lesson to be learned from the violence in France is that  anti-immigrant rhetoric from popularly elected leaders simply fuels violent actors on all sides without offering any practical solutions for the social and economic challenges of large-scale immigration.  We should be discouraging this rhetoric among our own political leaders: it is becoming all too common.

-jmc