France’s Unhappy Immigrants

What is France's 'social model'?

The French are stridently opposed to multiculturalism, which is disparaged by the left and right alike as an Anglo-Saxon folly. Under the ideals of French Republicanism, there are no ethnic minorities, only citizens equal before the law. As a result, the government refuses to gather or publish any statistics on national or ethnic origin. French residents can belong to only one of two official categories: a national or an étranger (a person born abroad without French citizenship). It's therefore difficult to gauge the size of ethnic minorities within the country. But if you include all those classified as étrangers, plus the children and grandchildren of étrangers, the total is 14 million—25 percent of the population. An estimated 5 million to 6 million of them are Muslim.

Has France long been a magnet for immigrants?

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Yes, thanks to its historically low birthrate and the resulting need for low-wage workers. In the 19th century, Europe's population more than doubled, but France's increased by just 40 percent, in part because its peasantry was too poor to support large families. To meet the demand for industrial labor, France encouraged migration from Italy, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, and Poland; within 30 years immigrants had increased from 1 percent to 3 percent of France's population. The upward trend was only halted in the early 1930s, when economic depression led to demands to shed foreign workers. Some went willingly; others didn't. Polish workers, the largest group, were forcibly repatriated by the trainload.

But immigration rose again?

Dramatically so. After World War II, France was the only country in Europe to encourage permanent immigration. But given a dearth of 'œculturally compatible' Europeans willing to do the job, France was forced to turn to its colonies or satellites in the Maghreb (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria), sub-Saharan Africa (Senegal), Indochina, and the Caribbean (Guadeloupe, Martinique). The big boost came after the end of the Algerian War of Independence in 1962. In a matter of days, more than a million French settlers were forced to flee Algeria, once the jewel in France's imperial crown. With them fled hundreds of thousands of Algerian natives who had fought on the French side. In France, these two groups started competing for the same limited opportunities and came to loathe each other.

How did this affect French society?

In the postwar boom years, it was just assumed that the migrants would return home after earning some money. But by the late 1960s it was clear that they weren't going anywhere; when recession hit in the mid-'70s and work became scarce, immigration became a major issue. In 1974, immigration was officially halted. But paradoxically, the block on new immigration spurred immigrants to put down roots in France. The men called their families to join them before it was too late, or they started new families and moved out of their temporary hostels and into French housing projects and working-class neighborhoods.

Were they accepted?

Hardly. Unlike earlier waves of immigrants, these immigrants were distinguishable by their dark skin and their adherence to Islam, and they were perceived by many as culturally alien and a threat to national identity. In 1972 a sociologist coined the term seuil de tolérance (threshold of tolerance), meaning the point at which the numbers of a minority group become too high for social cohesion to be maintained. This theory became hugely influential, and in the space of a few decades, immigration went from being essentially an economic question to the hottest issue in French politics.

Was religion the decisive factor behind the recent rioting?

Almost certainly not. It's true that some prominent Muslims in France are demanding the government adopt the ancient Ottoman 'œmillet' system, which would give the Muslim and other communities autonomy inside the state. But as the French police have noted, the areas of France where Islam is most prevalent were among the calmest in recent weeks. The reality is that the mores of young Maghrebis in France today are little different from those of their white counterparts: They smoke, drink, eat pork, like rap, and indulge in premarital sex.

Then what led to the violence?