[lit-ideas] Re: At War with Ourselves

  • From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2006 20:11:46 -0500

Lawrence, this is where you're wrong.  France never wanted to be a 
multicultural society.  They needed workers to do the jobs the French didn't 
want to do, so they imported people.  The problem happened when the imported 
people had children, the children were born and grew up in France.  They were 
French, they spoke French, but they were not given any of the rights of French 
citizens.  They were shut up in housing so inferior even the police wouldn't go 
there.  They had inferior education, minimal job opportunities, and generally 
few or no options.  They wanted a piece of the French pie, as in education and 
jobs, and were denied, so they rioted.  To say the French wanted 
multiculturalism is just factually incorrect, misinformed.       


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Lawrence Helm 
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 3/2/2006 7:20:20 PM 
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: At War with Ourselves


I looked at your sites.  The following from UNESCO is clearer about the status 
of multiculturalism in France: 
http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=2779&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
  This abstract will refer you to page 77 of a 104 page report on 
Multiculturalism from the International Journal on Multicultural Societies, 
(IJMS), Vol 5, No. 1.  France is described as a de-facto Multicultural society. 
 One of your articles says they aren?t really; which is what I wrote.  The 
French boots on the ground don?t accept multiculturalism.  I used a French word 
?sabots? rather than boots or galoshes, but I assumed that sentence would be 
understood.  

I still don?t know what your problem is.  France wanted to be a Multicultural 
society.  Multiculturalism fits one of the modern Liberal ideals.  
Multiculturalism doesn?t work.  It isn?t working in France and it isn?t working 
in Holland.  I don?t believe it will work anyplace.

Lawrence




From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of JUDITH EVANS
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2006 3:50 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: At War with Ourselves

Ah.  I see.  Your ideas about France and multiculturalism come from 
frontpagemag.com.  It's my sense that they either don't understand the French 
*anti* multicultural heritage or seek to ignore it. 

I quote someone whose politics I don't know, who does seem to know about France:

" The essential point is that multiculturalism has never been tried in France. 
On the contrary, France's problems are a manifestation of the failure of its 
flawed attempt at integration over half a century or so. "

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/11/14/1131951095194.html

Below is an indirect link (search hit 1) to a piece by Marty Schain ("Politics, 
immigration and multiculturalism in France and the United States"): you might 
find it instructive.  


http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?p=France+%2Bmulticulturalism+%2BSchain&prssweb=Search&ei=UTF-8&fr=my-vert-web-top&x=wrt&meta=vc%3D


Judy Evans, Cardiff

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