By: Olivia Buch, Christy David, Katherine Na, Medina Suta, and Caelan Veytia
With recent developments in international politics such as the refugee crisis and global terrorism, the world’s eyes have become fixated on Europe and how it has been dealing with the influx of Muslim migrants and refugees coming into the continent. In particular, France has been receiving a lot of attention for its treatment and assimilation of Muslim immigrants. While several other European countries have been accepting more refugees than France, Muslim immigrants in France face particularly unique challenges to assimilation in French society for several reasons. Given France’s colonial history, its emphasis on secularism, and a rise in French nationalism, recent Muslim immigrants have been struggling to adjust to their new lives in the country.
In order to fully understand the struggles that recent Muslim immigrants are facing in France, one must look back to France’s colonial history. Predominantly Muslim countries such as Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, were under French colonial rule for over a century. In the 1960’s and 70’s following the end of French colonialism in North Africa, there was a significant increase in North African Muslims immigrating to France. As of 2010, it is estimated that upwards of 4.7 million Muslims live in France, comprising 7.5% of the national population. It is also important to note France's strong history of secularism. In particular, in 2004, a law was passed that banned religious garments to be worn in schools and in 2016, a burqa ban was also implemented. In particular, Muslim women who wear hijabs, niqabs, and burqas have been disproportionately affected and targeted by these laws. With a stronger emphasis on secularism, for France’s Muslim immigrants, to be considered truly French one must abandon their religion. According to Sara Silvestri, a specialist on politics and religion in the European Union, “there is a normative level of French identity, that of secular citizenship, which in principle guarantees diversity and neutrality but de facto when enforced has often damaged diversity when secularism becomes imposed like an ideology”Additionally, although there are Muslim immigrants and their families who have lived in France for generations, they are still not considered “French” enough and face ethnic persecution because they are of Arab or African descent. Additionally, with recent terrorist attacks in France such as the Charlie Hebdo attacks and the Nice attacks, far right politicians have exploited the tragedies to push forward nationalist, anti-immigration platforms and demonize Muslim communities.
Moving to a new country, especially when one’s life is in danger, is incredibly difficult. To move to a country where you are looked down upon for adhering to your faith, persecuted for your ethnic background, and lambasted routinely by politicians to push their hateful rhetoric is incredibly difficult. In a similar vein, the refugee camps in France and how local politicians have been handling the new refugees is also incredibly troubling. In particular, the refugee camps in Calais, a small port city in the north, hosted over 400 refugees and were demolished, forcing the refugees to live on the street. Calais authorities have also been determined to “determine that Calais is a migrant-free zone” with police forces arresting and detaining refugees. Additionally, the French presidential elections this year were also worrisome, as Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front party ran on a xenophobic, anti-immigration platform and was gaining considerable support. All of these events have created a hostile environment for France’s Muslim communities.
Moving forward, the refugee crisis likely will not end soon and France’s Muslim population is expected to increase in the future. As of now, the European Union is struggling to control the flow of migrants and asylum seekers coming in and how to accommodate those that are already there. Likewise, there have also been more debates on how to properly assimilate Muslims in the West.. While France is not the only country with a large Muslim population, they are undeniably a powerful and influential country. Furthermore, given France’s long, complex history with Muslim immigrants, France is a great case study for how and how not to treat
Muslim immigrants.
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This was a great post. I liked how you started with a broad introduction that could help guide future blog posts. I also think it was very informative how you mentioned specific laws and examples of discrimination
ReplyDeleteI really connected this to the chapter we read on secularism not too long ago. I think it's very obvious that France is upping its policy on secularism not because the state would like to separate religion from the state, but because of racism. This post reminded me of a movie called, "Inch'Allah Dimanche" (it's on Netflix!!) about an Algerian family moving to a small town in France and facing a lot of discrimination as well.
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