France Burning

France Burning Africans living and working in Paris have been pushed into ghettoized suburbs of Paris (banlieue), where the state has withdrawn education, health, and other services, while increasing police presence, checkpoints, raids on sans-papiers and levels of oppression in general. This week the suburbs have exploded. "You are an idiot and a criminal (by publishing downright lies). France has spent fortunes of taxpayers' money on this scum that doesn't want to be assimilated, hates the West and only wants to live on wellfare (and many times, also, on drug dealing and prostitution). Europe has reached this situation in great part because of idiots like you. How much was your Al Qaeda's last payroll cheque?" Read the Full Story .... *Racism and Repression Explode in Week of Uprisings France turning into a police-dominated state FRANCE, is, by very old tradition, going back to the Roman times and to the middle ages, a country of colonisation, of immigration, of integration of populations of very different origins. The history of immigration in France shows that until 185I it was an immigration of proximity, of neighbourhood. Up to 1931 there had been a quiet progressive growth of immigration, followed by some decrease with the 1931 crisis and the Second World War. From 1956 to 1965 immigration went through a sort of boom, in particular linked with the Algerian war. At the same time many Africans from "black" Africa came after the decolonisation to seek employment. Then there was a steady increase of government control of immigration until the immigration policy was officially suspended in 1974. Read the Full Story .... *INTEGRATION IN THE FRENCH WAY Rise of the French National Front France's Identity Crisis The French government laid out a get-tough policy against illegal foreigners within its borders Wednesday that underscores deep EU divisions on the subject. On the one hand, immigrants are seen as a partial solution to yawning labor demands and to bankrolling pensions in an increasingly graying Europe. French National Front - No To Europe, No To Immigration, No To Globalization The detorioration of the social fabric that unemployement inevitably engendered in certain areas of France, in particular its suburbs, and the accompanying fear of crime and civic unrest is another factor that the Front National has successfully exploited, and is clearly related to the Front National's racist agenda. It is interesting to note that, in general, the popularity of the Front National is most prominent in those departements, suburbs or quartiers with a high ratio of ethnic minorities. Popularity is therefore particularly strong in the south from the Pyrenées Orientales to the Alpes Maritimes (i.e. France's Mediterranean coastline which is in relatively close proximity to North Africa), the depressed industrial areas of the north/north-east and the troubled suburbs around major cities like Paris, Lyon and Marseilles (i.e. where most immigrants settled from the 1950s onwards). The rise of the Front National may be seen as a symptom of the difficulties of transition and adaption to a post-industrial, post-colonial, post-national society. Le Pen's movement feeds on the insecurities engendered by this process, appealing to those who feel most threatened by market globalism, and exploiting in a racist direction the ideological space opened up by the mainstream parties abandonment of nationalist discourse. Significantly, the FN's nationalism is not geared to the development of a coherent and credible political programme, but to the populist exploitation of identity crisis at both the local community and national level. What is implicit in this way of talking about, or discourse on, immigration is a certain idea of France as a culturally homogeneous nation. Within the discourse of the Front National, France is constructed as a community sharing the same race, culture, language, history and religion and whose integrity is threatened by waves of foreign invaders. This model of the nation relies heavily on a crudely dualistic model of `us' and `them' to clarify complex social and economic problems and one might argue that this is precisely this simplicity of argument that appeals to so many who feel their lives threatened by forces they do not fully understand and that are often beyond their control. Read the Full Story .... *Explaining the Rise of Le Front National On the other, grumbling in countries like France and Germany that new EU members are snapping up local jobs is mixing with age-old prejudices and new fears of mounting Islamist extremism to create a potent anti-immigration backlash. Read the Full Story .... *France adds to EU's immigration debate They leave Asia, Africa or the Middle East for a promised Eldorado in France. Shut away, without papers, they work 15 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week, without holidays or wages. Masters The first come from countries where slavery has never entirely disappeared. They import the model when they settle in France. It is a "traditional" kind of exploitation, within the same community or family. Other employers use networks of "recruitment agencies". Finally, there are people who have served overseas. French people with a hankering for the good old days in the colonies. Modern slavery is invisible. slavery does not exist in the criminal code, lawyers cite a combination of offences: employment of illegal workers, ill-treatment, abduction, illegal confinement, inhuman working and living conditions, etc. Slavery Not In the Criminal Code French lawyers cite they have no papers, so they have to start by establishing their presence on French soil. Only then can we try to prove that offences have been committed. "Our social traditions offer no excuse for these abuses," Madagascar’s Paris ambassador, Malala Zo Raolison, assured me. "We make a distinction between mpiasa and mpamampy. The first are employees. They have employment contracts and are paid. The mpamampy is what you might call a domestic help, a girl or boy that well-off families recruit from the villages. He will work in his new home, but he will be fully part of the family. He will get food and lodging and go to school. But there will be no financial remuneration." How can this highly specialised immigration be described that provides domestic workers and fills illegal workshops. How can a market concept be described that justifies the over-exploitation of certain countries and their population?" Although it devises new forms, slavery always takes the same routes, those ancient routes of shame that start in the south and lead north. Read the Full Story .... *When immigration turns to slavery Other references .... *France: Liberalize Immigration Policy? *Spain, France Join Forces on Immigration *Immigration to France Stumble It!

France Burning

France Burning Africans living and working in Paris have been pushed into ghettoized suburbs of Paris (banlieue), where the state has withdrawn education, health, and other services, while increasing police presence, checkpoints, raids on sans-papiers and levels of oppression in general. This week the suburbs have exploded. "You are an idiot and a criminal (by publishing downright lies). France has spent fortunes of taxpayers' money on this scum that doesn't want to be assimilated, hates the West and only wants to live on wellfare (and many times, also, on drug dealing and prostitution). Europe has reached this situation in great part because of idiots like you. How much was your Al Qaeda's last payroll cheque?" Read the Full Story .... *Racism and Repression Explode in Week of Uprisings France turning into a police-dominated state FRANCE, is, by very old tradition, going back to the Roman times and to the middle ages, a country of colonisation, of immigration, of integration of populations of very different origins. The history of immigration in France shows that until 185I it was an immigration of proximity, of neighbourhood. Up to 1931 there had been a quiet progressive growth of immigration, followed by some decrease with the 1931 crisis and the Second World War. From 1956 to 1965 immigration went through a sort of boom, in particular linked with the Algerian war. At the same time many Africans from "black" Africa came after the decolonisation to seek employment. Then there was a steady increase of government control of immigration until the immigration policy was officially suspended in 1974. Read the Full Story .... *INTEGRATION IN THE FRENCH WAY Rise of the French National Front France's Identity Crisis The French government laid out a get-tough policy against illegal foreigners within its borders Wednesday that underscores deep EU divisions on the subject. On the one hand, immigrants are seen as a partial solution to yawning labor demands and to bankrolling pensions in an increasingly graying Europe. French National Front - No To Europe, No To Immigration, No To Globalization The detorioration of the social fabric that unemployement inevitably engendered in certain areas of France, in particular its suburbs, and the accompanying fear of crime and civic unrest is another factor that the Front National has successfully exploited, and is clearly related to the Front National's racist agenda. It is interesting to note that, in general, the popularity of the Front National is most prominent in those departements, suburbs or quartiers with a high ratio of ethnic minorities. Popularity is therefore particularly strong in the south from the Pyrenées Orientales to the Alpes Maritimes (i.e. France's Mediterranean coastline which is in relatively close proximity to North Africa), the depressed industrial areas of the north/north-east and the troubled suburbs around major cities like Paris, Lyon and Marseilles (i.e. where most immigrants settled from the 1950s onwards). The rise of the Front National may be seen as a symptom of the difficulties of transition and adaption to a post-industrial, post-colonial, post-national society. Le Pen's movement feeds on the insecurities engendered by this process, appealing to those who feel most threatened by market globalism, and exploiting in a racist direction the ideological space opened up by the mainstream parties abandonment of nationalist discourse. Significantly, the FN's nationalism is not geared to the development of a coherent and credible political programme, but to the populist exploitation of identity crisis at both the local community and national level. What is implicit in this way of talking about, or discourse on, immigration is a certain idea of France as a culturally homogeneous nation. Within the discourse of the Front National, France is constructed as a community sharing the same race, culture, language, history and religion and whose integrity is threatened by waves of foreign invaders. This model of the nation relies heavily on a crudely dualistic model of `us' and `them' to clarify complex social and economic problems and one might argue that this is precisely this simplicity of argument that appeals to so many who feel their lives threatened by forces they do not fully understand and that are often beyond their control. Read the Full Story .... *Explaining the Rise of Le Front National On the other, grumbling in countries like France and Germany that new EU members are snapping up local jobs is mixing with age-old prejudices and new fears of mounting Islamist extremism to create a potent anti-immigration backlash. Read the Full Story .... *France adds to EU's immigration debate They leave Asia, Africa or the Middle East for a promised Eldorado in France. Shut away, without papers, they work 15 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week, without holidays or wages. Masters The first come from countries where slavery has never entirely disappeared. They import the model when they settle in France. It is a "traditional" kind of exploitation, within the same community or family. Other employers use networks of "recruitment agencies". Finally, there are people who have served overseas. French people with a hankering for the good old days in the colonies. Modern slavery is invisible. slavery does not exist in the criminal code, lawyers cite a combination of offences: employment of illegal workers, ill-treatment, abduction, illegal confinement, inhuman working and living conditions, etc. Slavery Not In the Criminal Code French lawyers cite they have no papers, so they have to start by establishing their presence on French soil. Only then can we try to prove that offences have been committed. "Our social traditions offer no excuse for these abuses," Madagascar’s Paris ambassador, Malala Zo Raolison, assured me. "We make a distinction between mpiasa and mpamampy. The first are employees. They have employment contracts and are paid. The mpamampy is what you might call a domestic help, a girl or boy that well-off families recruit from the villages. He will work in his new home, but he will be fully part of the family. He will get food and lodging and go to school. But there will be no financial remuneration." How can this highly specialised immigration be described that provides domestic workers and fills illegal workshops. How can a market concept be described that justifies the over-exploitation of certain countries and their population?" Although it devises new forms, slavery always takes the same routes, those ancient routes of shame that start in the south and lead north. Read the Full Story .... *When immigration turns to slavery Other references .... *France: Liberalize Immigration Policy? *Spain, France Join Forces on Immigration *Immigration to France