Lessons for the world from rioting in France
Here are some lessons to be drawn from the nationwide rioting by disaffected Arab, West African and other youth in France. ‰ Equality of citizenship is the best model of immigrant integration. Canada and America have it right: accepting those who fit the immigration criteria, regardless of race, religion, etc., and granting them citizenship after five years of law- abiding residency. Both allow temporary workers but in small numbers, especially Canada. Increasing temporary work visas is like having guest workers, as in France and Germany, and risking a two- tier society and a potentially large number of illegals. ‰ A discrimination- free workplace is essential to making newcomers productive.
Brian Mulroney had it right when he said that a good job is the best tool of integration. It reduces settlement costs and gets the new arrivals contributing to the economy and paying taxes. The call for better recognition of foreign education and training is, therefore, enlightened selfinterest. The old model of immigrants sacrificing themselves for their children does not work anymore. The best and the brightest have alternatives other than Canada. Seen this way, you realize the seriousness of the French and German malaise: the debilitating effects of discrimination continuing into the second and third generations. ‰ Avoid an immigrant underclass, for immigrant ghettoes bring out our worst nativist instincts. Crime is crime and must be controlled. But the petty crimes committed by jobless Arab and black youth have turned the French national discourse into an exercise in racist finger- pointing. The way to forestall immigrant poverty is not through handouts. If it were, the French system of subsidized housing and generous social assistance would have worked. Nor does the solution lie in job quotas. They create white backlash, especially from lower- income groups. Ensure that people get jobs commensurate with their skills. ‰ Create a more representative police force.
French police is overwhelmingly white. When colour becomes the main line separating those enforcing the law and those breaking it, you create an unhealthy social dynamic, made worse when the police also happen to be clumsy and racist, as noted in a recent national French report. ‰ Integrate immigrants into the political process, rather than just milking them for votes.
Since democracy works best for those who participate in it, such involvement is best initiated by immigrant groups, as shown by our Italians, Sikhs and others. But it helps to have that as a public policy goal. Britain and Sweden have done so, to good effect; Germany and France have not. ‰ Don’t give multiculturalism a bad name because of what’s happening in France.
French youth are estranged not because they do not want to belong but because they have not been allowed to. The same is true of second- and thirdgeneration Turks in Germany.
Attributing their alienation to “ politically correct” multiculturalism is disingenuous. ‰ Don’t Islamicize the French problem. It is not. The rioting youth include non- Muslims of West African descent and from France’s island colonies. They also include whites, mostly of Portuguese descent. Yet post- 9/ 11 Islamophobes are trying to link the troubles to Islam. Ignore them. ‰ Immigrant origins do not really matter. To rationalize the problems created by their own poor policies, the Germans complain that their immigrant Turks are from the backward Anatolia region; the French and the Dutch that their immigrants hail from the mountains of Morocco and the interior of Algeria; and the British that theirs came mostly from Mirpur in Kashmir. We used to say similar things about our Ukrainian, Polish, German, Jewish and other immigrants.
Immigration is based on economics. Management of it is a mixture of sociology and ideology. When a society makes immigration work, it minimizes the pettiness between the foreign- born and the native- born, and leaves little room for demagogues. This is why Canada and America, unlike Europe, no longer have anti- immigrant political parties. Canadians thus have reason to feel pretty good about what we have managed here.
In Sunday’s column, I made two silly mistakes: misspelling Montpellier, and getting Jean- Marie Le Pen’s first name wrong. I apologize. Haroon Siddiqui, the Star’s editorial page editor emeritus, appears Thursday and Sunday. hsiddiq@thestar.ca.