So some good thoughts and questions on France and its relations to Muslims.
They don't integrate. They form their own ghettos and the "indigenous" people or whatever you want to call them don't understand them or really like them.*
*Experience in Scandanavia only.
It's either that or Europe is far more racist than the US. Which absolutely could be true, I guess. Or it could be both.
they dont and arent allowed to integrate. chicken/egg, yes and yes.
even people who are multiple generation french citizens aren't treated as french (or blank European country). they are treated as foreigners. this is (or was) one of the greatest strengths of america.
This isn't exactly right for France. If we recall back to the French losing Algeria, that it was a Department of France, or loosely a full state in France. It was a part of the Republic, not just a colony. It held a special place for many years and the insurgency and loss of Algeria litteral caused the French government with the 4th Republic to dissolve (obvs other issues at play too). I don't mean they had to hold new elections for parliament, but the entire federal system was reorganized under a new constitution. That reorientation caused a lot of strife and turmoil especially with how to relate to the majority Muslim/French/Algerian citizenry. That dissonance caused the split that led to the stratification of Muslims on the outside and white francos on the inside. It's at this point we see Muslims pushed into endogamous communities (and self insulation too). Now we have a scenario where we have 2 or 3 generations of Muslims who are "French" but are being disenfranchised politically and economically. That confinement and economic stagnation created a seedbed for radicalism. This piece from
Brookings (page 31 of note) pegs unemployment at 25ish%, I've seen that figure listed much higher recently for Muslim males (I think even around 40%). So now we have people who don't have access to the political system because they've been gerrymandered into small villages or communities. Those communities aren't getting services, and the traditional formal and informal mechanisms to bring them into the French system (military services/government jobs/ public education where the mix with white Frenchies) are at a loss as the French state has contracted (budget big here). We can see the first issues with this flair up with the 2005 riots in France that were not in Paris (so they didn't get covered much) but instead in their own ethnic communities. Now as Cire pointed out the French state is now pushing against conservative Islamic populations with their ban on head scarves and they have pushed some heavy franco policies in education (not so much multiculturalism how to be "French", but if you aren't this way you're an exile in your own state).
Now why does this matter? We have a large population of 2 or 3 gen Muslims males with no jobs, being rejected by their various European states who are being radicalized (we've all heard the lines about these men finding a "cause"). Now they are French citizens which means they have very free access to travel in Europe which means they are going to be harder to track and pin down.
To me it's crazy to see how the legacy of colonialism. We have the French acting all over their former colonies, particularly Mali, and that directly links the issues in Libya as well since those arms didn't all go to Syria like Dax thinks, instead many became part of the weapons trade in Africa and helped to destabilize Mali and central Africa.
