The Immigration Issue and Integration Policy in France
Today, I will talk about my topic in history. So, I will mention my topic for the graduation thesis. It is “immigration issue and the integration policy in France.” As you know, immigration issue happens in some countries like the UK or Germany, but I focus on France.
Then, let’s move on main contents. At first, I should explain what the immigration issue is. What is the immigration issue? The immigration issue means the issue or matter that happens in certain countries where they receive immigrants as workers. And so, immigration issue is the issue related foreigners and it is such as about cultural differences, about religious differences and about labor. Especially, I’m interested in labor issue, because the labor issue is so complicated. And it means not only the high rate of unemployment of immigrants, but also sometimes it causes the rise of unemployment of original workers, I mean workers not from immigrants, so, in France, French people. Anyway, this is short definition of the immigration issue, so I hope you will keep in mind.
Well, let’s move on immigration issue in France. I will explain shortly. France took in a few millions foreigners between the World War Ⅰ and Ⅱ. Especially, After the World War Ⅱ, France was lacking of labor force, so they needed to have a large populations and workers. So, almost all foreigners in France were workers. And In 1960s, the population of immigrants from Africa increased. There are two reasons for this. First, the French colonies in Africa gained independence. The countries were such as Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria and so on. And after the independence, those countries were suffering from their weak economy, so they wanted to send out the people to France as workers. This is the first reason. And the second reason is that France required large labor forces for the rapid economic growth. Anyway, like this, France took in immigrants.
But, in 1973, oil shock happened and the situation was changed. It led to the depression in economy in France, and in 1974, France stopped taking in new immigrants. From then, immigrants didn’t come back to their own country, and they began to settle down in France. This is because they thought once they came back to their own countries; they wouldn’t work in France again. So they began to settle down and call over their family in France. Thus, there were more immigrants who settled down in France and the immigration issue began to occur. So, France needs to integrate immigrants in economic and social sense. OK, these are about the movement of immigration issue.
Next, I will talk about how France integrates immigrants, or from bigger viewpoints, how France integrates the nation, the people in France. They have two big characteristics about integration. First, they have the principle called “universalism”. This word shows the view of equality in France. In short, Universalism means to treat everyone as an equal and universal person. In this sentence, universal and equal means, regardless of any attribute like religions or races, people are treated as equal. Because of this principle, people are supposed to have human rights equally. And second, they have the principle called “laicite”. “Laicite” originally means separation of church and state, but now this means to prohibit any religions in public places. In other words, by prohibiting any religions in public places, people are treated as equal regardless of religions like Christianity or Islam. Those two principles play a vital role in integration.
So, I explained about the two characteristics about integration, next, I focus on the present situation related immigration issue. Now, in my opinion, the labor issue is the most serious problem. In France, they have high rate of unemployment, especially, immigrants from un-European countries. The rate of unemployment in the whole France is about 9%, but on the contrary, the rate of unemployment of immigrants from un-European countries is over 25%. This is the problem. And I think that this high rate of unemployment comes from high rate of academic failure. According to the statistics, over 40% of immigrants don’t have any diploma. In the whole of France, it is about 20%. This situation might mean France needs some new policy in order to change the situation. Actually, they adopted some policy and I focus on a certain policy which is called “educational priority area policy”. At last, I will talk about this shortly.
So, what is the policy of educational priority area? In French language, this policy called “ZEP” and it means to set some areas where has remarkable academic failure and strengthen the education there and correct the unequal ness. In this policy, the academic failure has much to do with the unequal ness of economic and social circumstances. This is an important realization, I think. This policy started at 1982 and it has been continuing now. Now it covers 15% of primary school, and 17% of junior-high school. But, I don’t know whether this policy works effectively or not. Because there are little statistics about it, so I need to search the latest one.
And at last, I talk about the most important point in this policy which I focus. That is, this policy was going to be for immigrant students at first, but at last, this policy became for any academic failure. When I gave the presentation of this topic in the graduation thesis presentation last month, I concentrated on this point, and I told that this policy was going to be for immigrant students at first, so this policy should be changed for more effect or something like that. But it was completely useless. Actually, not only about immigrants but also in the whole of France, academic failure is a big problem. In addition, this attitude which is “for any academic failure” might be aware of the similar policy in the UK. UK has similar policy to this and they focus on the specific groups like immigrants. But, it causes some bad effect, so France might have known that before. Anyway, about this part, I haven’t studied enough, so what I mentioned now is the work left from now on.
Presentation (27/6/07)
Questions and Answers Session summerized by by U4 Kazuha Okimoto
Q: What is “academic failure”, for example?
A: 40% immigrant students can’t graduate from school. They can’t achieve expected quality. In most of the case, they can’t speak French.
Q: What kind of school?
A: Primary school, junior high school, high school, or university. All kind of schools.
Q: If the immigrants have high French skill, will they be employed?
A: They should be employed, but in fact discrimination exists. Without any provision, they will be still discriminated for their race or religion. But if they have high French skill, they might be able to work under better condition.
Q: Through this study about ZEP, what do you want to know?
A: Actually, I don’t know what I want to know. I can’t answer now.
Others’ Comment: It is very important to ask yourself constantly what you want to
know.
Q: Please tell us some examples of the concrete policy of ZEP.
A: Expending more money for teachers, and the way of special education. Money is mainly used for reinforcement of education of the basic subjects.
Q: Only monetary policy?
A: Probably, yes.
Q: I think your focus changes from unemployment problem to education problem. Why?
A: Because education is needed for resolution of unemployment problem.
Q: Which is your interest, unemployment itself or education? Unemployment is one of labor problems. You have to clarify which theme to study, about labor or education.
Others’ Comment: Most countries starts with educational policy for resolution of immigration issue. Why is education focused on? In fact, immigration issue is IN education issue. The latter is wider than the former. It is education that includes whole society. It is the structure. But various elements are intertwined very complicatedly in this structure.
His presentation is so understandable. He explained the fact and the situation very clearly. I know about Immigration a little, so I cannot judge that it is good or not, to pick up educational problem. But it is wrong that academic failure causes the high rate of unemployment of immigration, and academic success will cause the high rate of employment of them, maybe. Academic problem is one of the factors. I think a lot of immigration people want to give their children the special education, so they mention educational problem, therefore the government deal with that problem.
If he wants to know the reason of the unemployment of immigration, he had better not deal with only this topic, but no one knows his purpose of his research, even himself.
by By Junnosuke Shibu(4th grade)
"The Immigration Issue and Integration Policy in France" is very interesting topic for me because I like Thierry Daniel Henry, who is one of the best soccer players of France and immigrant, and I have been interested in the Immigration issue in France.
by Kakeru Fujiwara(3rd grade)
As for Mr.Yanauchi's presentation, I think French policy of immigration is unique. I know after the WW2, a lot of immigrants began to settle down and it caused some problems now. One of them is the policy of educational priority for immigrant student. I think such a policy like affirmative action exists in Japan, but I wonder if it is effective for educational discrimination.
by
Sakamoto Yoko, U4 student
Mr. Yanauchi's presentation was interesting. I think educational policy has big influence toward the society, and it's important for immigrants to adjust there. And I felt he was accustomed to speak English.
by Kanenari Akiko, U4 student
I am interested in the immigration issue in France, because I learned about this issue in French class two years ago. Although the immigration problem has become more and more serious these days, it seems that none of the countries which suffer this problem can find its solution. In the presentation, he talked only about French ZEP policy. So I couldn't understand how much importance this poilcy has in the integration policy as a whole. However, his presentation was clear and easy to follow.
by Rika Kobata, U4 student