French Riots Bode Ill for U.S.

French Riots Bode Ill for U.S.
By Warren Mass
November 10, 2005

French President Jacques Chirac declared a national state of emergency on November 9, in response to nearly two weeks of rioting that have plagued dense immigrant, Islamic enclaves in the suburbs of Paris and other French cities.

The rioting began on October 27 in a Paris suburb, when youths angry about the deaths of two teenagers of African origin, Bouna Traore and Zyed Benna (who were accidentally electrocuted after having climbed a fence around a power substation), began burning cars and engaging in other acts of violence. Reports that the boys were attempting to evade the police contradicted each other, but that made little difference.

The rioting quickly escalated and spread across France, as, night after night, more disaffected youths joined in the lawlessness. As conditions worsened, President Chirac issued his emergency decree, which applies to Paris and its suburbs and more than 30 other cities ranging from the English Channel to the Mediterranean. Among the powers granted by the decree are the authority to put rioters under house arrest, to ban or limit the movement of people and vehicles, to confiscate weapons, and to limit assembly in public places.

The non-French observer, unfamiliar with the dynamics of French society, is inclined to wonder: “Can it happen here?” An article in the Scotsman for November 7 supplied European answers to that question:

“Wolfgang Bosbach, the deputy leader of the conservative Christian Democrats in the German parliament, told a Sunday newspaper: ‘There are differences between the situation in France and here, but we should not be under the illusion that similar events could not happen in Germany.’

“In Italy, Romano Prodi, the opposition leader, called on the government to take urgent action, telling reporters: ‘We have the worst suburbs in Europe. I don’t think things are so different from Paris. It’s only a question of time.’ ”

In the New York Times for November 2, writer Craig S. Smith’s analysis of the French problem missed its underlying causes and did not suggest Americans should be concerned about a similar chain of events unfolding here:

“The periodic violence highlights France’s failure to integrate immigrants into the country’s broader society, a problem that has grown in urgency as the unemployment rate climbs. Most of the country’s immigrants are housed in government-subsidized apartments on the outskirts of industrial cities. They benefit from generous welfare programs, but the government’s failure to provide jobs has created a sense of disenfranchisement among the young. A highly observant form of Islam has grown popular among the mostly Muslim population.”

While Smith correctly notes that the French have failed to integrate immigrants into its “broader society,” anyone even remotely familiar with Gallic cultural pride would seriously doubt that the failure of immigrants to achieve some degree of cultural integration is the fault of the French. As to economic integration, it appears that France has emulated the U.S. welfare-state approach, with similar results. Who can forget the social breakdown that occurred in America’s urban centers dominated by similar government-subsidized apartments, and the severe “racial” riots that exploded in Watts and Newark in the 1960s? Following the principle that one gets what one subsidizes, years of government spending to insulate the chronically unemployed from the follies of their irresponsibility produced entire communities in which a substantial number of residents were not engaged in any productive activities. Such an environment, whether in Los Angeles or Paris, is fuel for social unrest.

While the French apparently learned little from our failures, perhaps we can learn from theirs. And the primary lesson to be learned is the danger of permitting immigration at a level greater than the host country’s ability to assimilate it.

While it is true that America is a nation of immigrants, earlier immigration was subject to stringent controls in the form of quotas, and a reasonable indication that each immigrant would become a productive member of society. As a result, the great grandchildren of most late 19th- and early 20th-century European immigrants can today barely be distinguished from those whose ancestors arrived on the Mayflower.

Contrast that with the unbridled immigration (much of it illegal) that floods our cities and agricultural communities today. Our officials cannot be sure how many immigrants are within our borders, where they reside, or what activities they are engaged in. Wary of mainstream society, many immigrants live in a subculture that provides little incentive to learn English or to interact socially with more established Americans. Effectively marginalized, but aware of (and often envious of) the prosperity around them, they remain festering, until the time comes when an “incident” will ignite riots even worse than those now occurring in France.

Why should American immigrant riots be worse than those in France? Consider that most of the rioters in France were teenagers with no previous connections to organized criminal gangs. Among U.S. immigrant communities, with high percentages of illegals, the opposite is true. A January 21, 2005 article in the Washington Post identified two particularly violent and troublesome gangs whose members have infiltrated our borders: “The two major gangs are the Mara Salvatrucha, known as MS-13, and the Mara 18, which first appeared in the early 1990s in Los Angeles neighborhoods where Central American immigrants had settled. Over the past decade, U.S. officials have deported thousands of mara members to their native countries, where they are blamed for soaring crime rates.”

What was beyond the scope of that particular article, however, is that the number of MS-13 members and other illegal immigrants deported represents but a small number compared to our nation’s total illegal immigrant population. The end of the social ills attributable to uncontrolled illegal immigration is not yet in sight, and will not be, unless this situation is rapidly and firmly brought under control. France is learning its lesson the hard way. We would be wise to learn our lesson the smart way.