With the previous two posts I have only given background to the current problem that is taking place in France. The issue can be summarized in two words, national identity. The immigrants that come to France and take advantage of the socialist governmental system refuse to refer to themselves as French. The Maghrebins for some reason flaunt the fact that they live in France and take advantage of it, and still refuse to assume a French identity. Like I said before, government officials are not able to single out this particular group because that would be an outward act of racism, and therefore not an action that can be taken by a modern government such as that of France. So this leaves the French government between a rock and hard place, unable to solve this problem because it would leave them looking unprofessional. President Nicolas Sarkozy has launched a campaign to define national identity, a kind of indirect way of attacking this issue. He has to attack it indirectly because of this issue of political incorrectness. Because this specific group of immigrants is not agreeing to have themselves seen as French, Sarkozy has started this initiative to answer the question of what being French really means.
In my opinion, this fight is really not worth fighting. Natural born French people are renouncing their country, something that I see no point in, but they should nonetheless be allowed to say whatever they want. But this should not be made a racial issue, like most people in France are making it. If people are renouncing their country that is their problem, but if they are committing crimes they should be punished and even more severely if it is done blatantly to spit on their country. Although France doesn’t exactly abide by the same constitution as the states do I think freedom of speech should be protected. This issue should not be racial, because if someone does something illegal, they should be punished, but if one were to say something that wasn't exactly ideal in the eyes of the government, that should be protected
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ReplyDeleteFrom geography last year, I know that France has a very strong sense of national identity. They love being French and are very proud of their culture. They don't like a lot of American influence on their culture, so I can see how Sarkozy's campaign for national identity can be taken well by the citizens of France.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the situation with the Maghrebins, I agree with you that it shouldn't be made a racial problem because that would not make the French government look very good, but in my opinion, there is no way to avoid it. It's a racial problem and I don't think anyone can deny that. The Maghrebins are starting to make up a large chunk of the French population with the second generation already in place. So I think that Sarkozy's campaign for national identity is actually a really good idea because what really needs to happen is just to integrate the Maghrebins into the French culture so they can feel like citizens, and not just immigrants. This sounds worse than it is; trying to integrate people into a culture and all that, but it's not good for a country to have two different groups of people that have trouble getting along and don't necessarily see eye to eye. It would be better to have a united front so they can both work together and come to compromises on certain issues.
Like Zoe said, I know that the French are very proud of their culture, but from the posts I got the sense that their sense of national identity may not be as strong as it once was. I agree that this should not be made a racial issue. Instead, I think the Maghrebins need to feel as though they are a part of french society and not outsiders who are there solely for the monetary benefits of the system. This should probably start at the source: the rising amounts of immigration. Therefore, I think it might be helpful to address the rising numbers of immigrants into the country and attempt to make the topic less of a taboo so that people are willing to talk about it. This way, citizens will feel more free to express their opinions without having their speech limited.
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