France: A Crisis of Integration

Since the mid-1970s, signs of Balkanization have arisen in France. Xenophobia, racism, and anti-Semitism are becoming more common, and the country’s tradition of lafcite (secularism)—the radical separation of the state from all forms of religion—has been confronted with a revival of religious identities. The French republican model, with its twin universalist and assimilationist goals, appears more and more on the defensive. This is the context in which France has been debating immigration. From 1974, when legal immigration was officially halted, to the present, mainstream political rhetoric has referred to immigration as a “problem.” The influx of newcomers, it is claimed, threatens the traditional French model.