Muslims in Europe: The Challenge of Integration. So Much for Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: France’s Relationship with the Islamic Veil « State. Neil Thomas on the banning of the Burka in France. A law came into effect on April 11 in France that bans the covering of the face in any public place. This general rule has a very specific effect; Muslim women wearing a face-concealing veils such as those part of the niqab or burka (the general term ‘veil’ will be used henceforth for the sake of clarity) in public can be fined up to €150 by the police and forced to attend citizenship classes. Exceptions to the rule are made for such things as motorcycle helmets, health-related face masks, sporting equipment, sunglasses that do not completely hide the face, and masks that play a role in ‘traditional activities’ such as religious events and carnivals.
People forcing others to cover their faces in public are subject to a fine of up to €30,000 and possible imprisonment. The theme underlying most of the justifications for restricting the wearing of Islamic veils in France is that of societal values. Like this: Like Loading... France’s Muslim Question. By Toni Kamins France is a racist country; France is not a racist country. Hardly new accusations, what with trouble in the Banlieue, the burqa debate, riots, and official conferences on what to do about Muslims.
The French state bears a great deal of responsibility for the long-festering integration problem, and for creating much of it. But the Muslim community of France must also shoulder a big chunk of the blame and it is now up to them to initiate solutions even if they did not create the problems to begin with. Hint: riots are not the way to go. It may be throwing gasoline on the fire, but France’s Muslims should consider the experience of their estranged cousins—France’s Jews. For over a thousand years Jews lived in France at the sufferance of the Catholic Church, the monarchy, and the French people, enduring physical, social, legal, and economic segregation, official derision of their faith, blame for all manner of the country’s ills, and routine violence and murder.
Toni L. Islam in Paris : Euro-Islam: News and Analysis on Islam in Europe and North America. Demographics [Return to top] In French administrative organization, Paris is a French department. The Ile-de-France region comprises eight departments, including Paris. The other departments in the region are Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne, Val-d’Oise Essonne, Yvelines and Seine-et-Marne. The Parisian suburbs make up the areas with the highest proportion of Muslims in France.
According to a 1999 census, 1,611,008 immigrants live in the Ile-de-France region. Of this figure, 466,608 are from the Maghreb, 238,984 from Sub-Saharan Africa, and 50,125 from Turkey. The North-African population lives predominantly in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, Yvelines, and Val-de-Marne. The arrival of the first waves of Muslim immigrants coincided with alterations of Parisian living conditions. The demographics of Muslim and immigrant habitation remain today – examples include the 13th arrondissement, around the Place d’Italie, the Mosque of Paris, and the 18th arrondissement.
Education. France moves toward burqa ban amid concern over Muslim integration. A controversial French parliament report on the burqa issued here today recommends outlawing the full-length Muslim veil in public or state venues like buses, hospitals, and schools – though it also condemns what it calls “Islamophobia. " Skip to next paragraph Subscribe Today to the Monitor Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS ofThe Christian Science MonitorWeekly Digital Edition The much-anticipated 200-page study fell just short of calling for a complete ban on the face-covering veil worn mainly by women from Gulf states, Pakistan, and Afghanistan – with six members of the parliamentary commission arguing in favor of a full ban, and six against.
The report, which security and identification needs, is expected to provide ballast for a law to ban, in some form, the burqa, obliging "people not only to show their faces in public-run areas, but keep their faces uncovered as long as they stay there.” The “burqa debate” in France rose nearly overnight like a pelting summer storm when Mr. Muslim Women and Youth in the West: Source of Concern or Source of Hope? Muslim Women and Youth in the West: Background Paper Scholars and policy makers agree that there have been important failures in integrating successive generations of Muslims in the West. Yet there is disagreement over the meaning of integration itself, which has varied between countries and changed over time in response to historical processes of immigration. Discussions have focused on the degree to which conformity to a national community model is expected from and/or imposed on immigrants.
Two dimensions are important in understanding how immigrants have negotiated communal boundaries within different countries: the rigidity of boundaries between the “ins” and the “outs” and the permeability of these boundaries. In highly defined “Jacobin” models, typified by France, the boundaries are firm, but may be crossed without either insiders or outsiders having to change their basic identities.
Models of Integration A Crisis of Integration? Politics and Integration. Muslim Communities in Europe: Security and Integration post 9/11 (2004-2008) The Muslim Communities Project. Vol. 1, Muslim communities in France. - Durham Research Online. Muslims in France. 07PARIS306: ENGAGEMENT WITH MUSLIM COMMUNITIES - FRANCE. 026.pdf (application/pdf Object) France and Germany’s views on Islam. In France as in Germany, in spite of different traditions in terms of secularism and integration of immigrant communities, the question of the increased visibility of Islam bustles the public debate.
The Ifop/Le Monde survey conducted from December 3 to 9 indicates a widespread sentiment of failure as regards the Muslim community’s integration: 68 % of the French and 75 % of the Germans consider that the integration of Muslim people is not realized, these results reflect Mrs Merkel and M Sarkozy’s comments about the failure of integration and the “multikulti” model. A main explanation advanced is the notion that these populations refuse to integrate with the local society (61 % in France and 67 % in Germany).
For the French as for the Germans, the too big cultural differences (40 % and 34 %) as well as the consequences of geographical segregation (37 % and 32 %) participate also in this integration deficit but to a lesser extent. Europe - Muslims' integration in Europe is urgent challenge. France's Muslim Integration Efforts Are Incomplete - Forbes.com. Islam in France. Islam is the second-most widely practiced religion in France behind Roman Catholicism by number of worshippers, with an estimated total of 5 to 10 percent of the national population. Statistics[edit] Due to a law dating from 1872, the French Republic prohibits performing census by making distinction between its citizens regarding their race or their beliefs.
However, that law does not concern surveys and polls, which are free to ask those questions if they wish. The law also allows for an exception for public institutions such as the INED or the INSEE whose job it is to collect data on demographics, social trends and other related subjects, on condition that the collection of such data has been authorized by the National Commission for Computer-stocked data and Freedom (CNIL) and the National Council of Statistical Information (CNIS(fr)). Estimations based on declaration[edit] Estimations based on people’s geographic origin[edit] Population[edit] Early history[edit] Maghrebis[edit] Untitled Document. Integration of Islamic Communities in Europe:The Strategic Imperative To paraphrase my senior honors thesis advisor, Kemal Karpat, rare is the historical epoch that has not been fundamentally affected by migration. Yet, in post-WWII twentieth century Europe, during what the French call “les trentes glorieuses” (1945-1975), migration was largely viewed as an economic phenomenon without much political significance, to say nothing of strategic import.
This viewpoint would begin to change in the 1970s. By the 1980s, with the emergence of the National Front, the significance of migration as a political issue could no longer be ignored. By the 1990s, migration policy underwent securitization and began to be viewed as relevant, indeed central, to French national security policy.
In the past decade, and especially since 9/11 and 3/11 2004 in Madrid, migration and integration of Islamic communities largely created by post-WWII migration have become matters of vital concern. Studyvisit_Sumon.pdf (application/pdf Object) 1015550107.full.pdf (application/pdf Object) Articles - France and Its Muslims. October 09, 2006 ByStephanie Giry Over the past few years, terrorist bombings of the public transport systems of Madrid and London have sparked fears that Europe may be breeding its own crop of indigenous jihadists. Less understandably, those events have also sometimes been conflated with events such as the murder of the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a deranged fanatic, last fall's riots in the French banlieues, and recent protests over disparaging cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Together, these events have been taken as evidence that the immigration and integration policies of several European countries have all failed. This diagnosis is glib and alarmist, and it overlooks more nuanced and encouraging sociological realities. What to do about homegrown Muslim terrorism is a serious question, of course, but it is not the only one worth asking. The status of Muslims in France is at once much healthier and more problematic than most recent commentary lets on. Relentless violence exposes myth of integration. French Muslims break stereotype and show up integration skeptics | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 15.10.2010. Muslims from former French colonies in North Africa immigrated to France throughout the second half of the last century, and now their children and grandchildren are growing up French.
While Muslims still face discrimination, many have successfully integrated and are a part of French society, which now has Western Europe's largest Muslim population. Amira Beshallah is one such example of a successfully integrated second-generation French Muslim. After a day of classes at the Sorbonne University in Paris, she comes home to an apartment near the Seine River, where she lives with her parents.
The 19-year-old is earning an undergraduate degree in literature and communications and wants to become a television journalist. Amira's parents immigrated to France from the North African country of Tunisia, but she says she identifies more with France than with the country of her parents' birth. "Since I've been little, I've felt completely French," she says. Generation gap A new direction. World Cup: France No Match For Integration. To some observers, the French national team’s failure to advance in this year’s World Cup was nothing short of a juicy scandal with all the necessary components: in-fighting, expulsions, poor play, and an unfavorable coach.
But beneath the entertainment-driven headlines, the team’s implosion shows just how explosive the country’s racial tensions have become. In 1998, France’s World Cup championship team was hoisted up for all the world to see for its inclusion of Black, white and Arab players. For some, it seemed that their model of assimilating former African colonies into a united France was working. But the youth-led uprisings of 2005 shattered any globally-held illusions of racial harmony in the country.
For many French fans, the defining image of the team’s 2006 World Cup was the expulsion of star player Zinedine Zidane for head butting Italian defender Marco Materazzi for reportedly taunting him with a racial slur Photo: The France team, Getty Images/Clive Mason. Identifying barriers to Muslim integration in France (Claire Adida) Identifying barriers to Muslim integration in France Claire L. Adida a , David D. B,1 , and Marie-Anne Valfort c Department of Political Science, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0521; b Department of Political Science, Stanford University,Stanford, CA 94305-6044; and Department of Economics, Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne University, 75647 Paris Cédex 13, FranceContributed by David D.
Is there a Muslim disadvantage in economic integration for second-generation immigrants to Europe? Slabor market opportunitiesbecauseother factors, such as country oforiginorrace,confoundtheresult.ThispaperusesacorrespondencetestintheFrenchlabormarkettoidentifyandmeasurethisreligiouseffect. Rm that in the French labor market, anti-Muslim discrimination exists: a Muslim candidate is 2.5 times lesslikely to receive a job interview callback than is his or her Christiancounterpart. Es, measures, and infers consequen-ces of discrimination based on religious af Furthermore, d e Christian Europe f . G The. Europe's integration problems. Unrest in France, November 2005: Immigration, Islam and the Challenge of Integration. French Muslims face job discrimination. Days of rioting in the bleaker suburbs of Paris have highlighted discontent among many French youths of North African origin.
As part of a series on French Muslims, the BBC News website's Henri Astier looks at the issue of discrimination, a leading source of frustration in France's unemployment-riddled ghettos. Sadek recently quit his job delivering groceries near Saint-Denis, just north of Paris. He was tired of climbing stairs with heavy bags. Sadek, 31, has a secondary school education and aspires to something better. But he knows his options are limited: "With a name like mine, I can't have a sales job. " Telemarketing could be a possibility - his Arab roots safely hidden from view. Sadek's story sums up the job prospects of the children and grandchildren of Muslim immigrants. They may be French on paper - but they know that Ali and Rachid are much less likely to get ahead than Alain or Richard. Racial discrimination is banned in France. The impression is confirmed by official statistics.
French people. The French (French: Français) are a nation and ethnic group native to France that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population descended from peoples of Celtic origin, later mixing with Romance and Germanic origin. It is also an ethno-linguistic group based on ancestral ties, but within France, the French are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence.[25] However, the word can also refer to people of French descent who are found in other countries, with significant French-speaking population groups or not, such as Canada (French Canadians), United States (French Americans), Argentina (French Argentines), United Kingdom (French British), Brazil (French Brazilians) and French West Indies (French Caribbean), and some of them have a French cultural identity.[26][27] Citizenship and legal residence[edit] History[edit] Celtic and Roman Gaul[edit] Frankish Kingdom[edit] Kingdom of France[edit]
The Other Side of the Veil. Burqas and Banlieues: disguising France’s integration problems « Escaping Durkadurkistan. In this life, few things are more banal to me than the discussion about burqas. Even critiques of the burqa craze are beginning to seem passé. With everyone from Oprah to Deepak Chopra weighing in, one wonders what is left to be said and whether it is worth adding to the already-monstrous heap of commentary. Yet Muslims are endlessly challenged to explain the burqa and clarify what they think about it.
This is largely thanks to the French government. In recent years, the burqa (or rather the banning of it) has become a cause célèbre in French politics. When most people talk about "burqas" in the European context, they're thinking of "niqabs"/"niqaabs". For simplicity's sake, I generally refer to the "burqa" here since the discourse has already been framed using that word. Despite having lived in France for generations, Muslims are not considered French by many so-called "French French" people. Missing the point At every turn, the French Muslim experience is downplayed and obscured. Major French Issues ; economy, immigration, Islam, integration, health...
France's Problematic Integration Model. Viewcontent.cgi (application/pdf Object) France and the "Heirs" of North African Immigration - Knowledge Must Blog. Yale French Studies, No. 85 (1994), pp. 248-261. SubStance, Vol. 24, No. 1/2 (1995), pp. 137-153. Cultutal Conflicts: North African Immigrants in France; The International Journal for Peace Studies.