Xenophobia in France

France today has an external image of a xenofobic society. Despite that LePen's votes have dipped considerably in the last election, up to 4 million French people are still sympathisers of the far right FN.

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Thanks for the info.

The Brits never voted for an openly xenophobic party because most Brits are not strongly xenophobic.

In Spain, most immigrants are from Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe, with Ecuadorean (largest on the national level), Rumanian (largest in Madrid), and Morrocco (largest in Andalusia and the south) being the most dominant elements.

It is true that integration is easier when the numbers are fewer, but it also depends on the nature of the immigrants.

Bulldog, I wouldn't be so certain as you are. Look at the Scottish protestants that moved in Ireland in the 15th century� They're still there and there is still a massive problem.

I agree with you that some British blacks are amazingly well integrated. Once in a while you see a group of lads and a black man amongst them who is just a lad amongst the lads. On the other hand I lived in front of a school where easily 80% of the pupils were black.

When it comes to the ghettos, I'd said it is luck that decides. Here is an example common in France:
- 1960s, massive numbers of North Africans are brought in to work in the factories set in the Northern towns or at safe distance of the important cities. They live in project specially designed for them (cheap but relative comfort, mostly single men).
- 1973 first oil shock unemployment rises dangerously
- 1974 new emigration laws working migrants can bright their families to them. The projects designed for single men suddenly have to deal with massive input of women and children. Local public services cannot cope with this influx, education and health are very very poor.
- 1977 new law on lodging, acquiring a house becomes very easy. Whoever can move out does (mostly qualified French workers), the electoral weight of the projects drops.
- 1972-1978 great revolution of the French underworld, the godfathers of the French connection lose in a few month their Turkish providers and their American buyers, the Corsicans lose the leadership to a large number of small local caids. First significant drug wave in French cities, The bonanza concentrates on big markets (the 3 major cities). The unemployed and de facto ostracised migrants and sons of migrants take their chance, for 30 years they will dominate the market.
- 1984-2007 the lodging market in inner towns keep rising fast, the last chances to leave the ghettos dissipate. The inner towns are the new job centers of the service society, these jobs are at 2 hours or more by public transport, the geographic and economic ghettoisation of the migrants is completed.
- 1985-2007 the majors hopes put in the new socialist government and in the civil rights movement dissipate. The gang and street cultures and later radical religiosity (not only Muslim btw) participate to create a very negative image of the ghettos' youth. Fear, racism and unemployment also participate in the rise of xenophobic feelings and parties creating an even larger discrimination.

OK one thing I may not have made clear, there is no real crime wave, there is a crime awareness-zero tolerance wave 

The PCF (Frech Communist Party) has or rather had a lot in common with the FN indeed. First and foremost it had a very simplistic way of talking: going from, the shareholder have all the money lets take it to the migrants have all the jobs lets take them back, the rhetoric is not too different.

Of course we can't over generalize. The PCF was supported by some of the most brilliant minds in France (Sartre, Picasso, etc), the FN isn't. But the PCF was in its own way very nationalist too. This make it easy to jump from one extreme to the other.

All the polls indicate that the FN electorate is overwhelmingly popular or even poor. It was never the case for the PCF where the factory workers never represented more than 50% of the electorate (less than 30% of them regularly voted PCF). So the social profiles resembles each other but are not identical. Some traditional PCF lands have turned FN, but some didn't and some FN lands have never been PCF.

But in any case the reality in the red belt was very different under the reds and the browns. I a PCF municipality, an enormous amount of money was sent for the comfort of the population (sport facilities, libraries, public transports, schools, holidays for the kids, etc) they had a real social program. The FN on the other hand is anti taxes so�

For example, in the UK we can make census of British citizens based on religion and ethnicity, while in France it is not allowed.

The British census is based primarily on race, not so much ethnicity, and exists from a time when the government could do it no matter what the public thought. The French used to have this, but WWII left a bad taste in their mouthes over this sort of thing.
Plus there is apathy, the Brits just go along with almost anything. I think if the Dutch introduced the British aproach to race in their census, half the population would either leave it blank, or tick 'other' just to spite the government.

Originally posted by Bulldog As long as Britain carries on this path and tries to reject some of the racist rhetoric and Islamophobia rising in Europe in the long term she will be better off. However, some of the tabloid media likes to create tesnion, labelling migrants as criminals, stealing jobs and being leaches.   Alot of the integration problems in Western Europe in my opinion are due to not embracing them as a part of society, they're made scapegoats and due to always being targetted it made them more resistant to any form of assimilation which they percieve to be a threat.