http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/?p=108
A French Lesson for George W. Bush by Srdja Trifkovic
The head of France’s newly established Ministry of Immigration and
National Identity, Brice Hortefeux, has ruled out the possibility of mass
legalization of illegal immigrants, saying that government policy would be
firm and pragmatic. In line with his Ministry’s avowed task to control the
inflow of immigrants and protect French values and cohesion, he declared
that “massive legalization” is out of the question because “it doesn’t
work.” Announcing a policy guided by “firmness and humanism,” he announced
tough new quotas for the number of illegal immigrants authorities should
arrest and expel each month.
In a meeting with security officials, Hortefeux reiterated President
Sarkozy’s goal of 25,000 expulsions by the end of 2007, and he set a
year-end goal of 125,000 arrests for illegal entry or illegal residence. He
also stressed the need to expand the system of paying illegal immigrants to
return to their country of origin of their own accord. Those volunteering to
leave, as part of a program started in late 2005, usually receive $4,700 per
couple, with $1,350 each for the first three children.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon echoed his minister’s announcement by
declaring that “Europe is no El Dorado,” and announced that “the French
Republic will be extremely firm. It will ensure laws are applied . . .
Generosity is not opening wide the borders without thought for how people
will integrate, how they will live, how they will subsist.”
Such statements and policies are in marked contrast to the bipartisan
clamoring for mass amnesty of unkonwn millions of illegal aliens in the
United States, justified by the deterministic claim that “they are here to
stay anyway”—and motivated either by greed, or by the cultural-Marxist
ideology of revolutionary transformation through “multiculturalism.”
It should be noted that before the energy crisis of the 1970s France
resembled the United States, rather than the rest of Europe, in that it
encouraged permanent immigration. Unlike the United States, however, the
political class in France has responded to the evident inability or
unwillingness of millions of (primarily Muslim) immigrants to integrate into
the host society by legitimizing the debate about identity, culture,
legality, and the link between immigration and national security. The views
that would be routinely branded as “nativist” or “racist” by the dominant
elite in this country, such as immigration zéro, were embraced by then-Prime
Minister Edouard Balladur as far back as 1993.
Le Pen was defeated in the second round of the presidential election in
May 2002, but he did come second (imagine Buchanan, or someone like
Buchanan, doing that here!) and his ideas have had such an impact that he
has accused Sarkozy of stealing them. And unlike the United States, where
businesses, labor unions, ethnic interests and the Left have forged an
unholy alliance that jointly lobbies for open-door policy and blanket
amnesties, there are no major pressure groups in France advocating greater
immigration. Employers are subjected to rigorous fines if caught hiring
illegals, labor unions are loath to allow further erosion of wages, and
immigrant lobbies’ inevitable Islamism makes broader alliances unlikely.
While many French conservatives do not trust Sarkozy and suspect that this
seasoned operator will turn out to be just another consensus politician, his
very pragmatism may prompt him to let M. Hortefeux carry out his promises
and pursue a sanguine immigration policy. His neo-Lepenist rhetoric yielded
tangible political dividends in the second round of the presidential
election last month, and he must know that softening the stand on
immigration could cost him a fifth of the residual FN vote in the
future—without wooing any Socialist supporters to his camp in return.
The emerging new consensus in France is a direct consequence of the riots
almost two years ago. The country used to pride herself on her ability to
turn outsiders into Frenchmen, but that was possible when most of them were
Italians and Spaniards, Poles and Russians . . . who were culturally
assimilable. They came in tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands even
(notably the Pieds-Noirs after the fall of Algeria, many of them non-French
Southern Europeans), but not in the millions. The Muslims did, and it is
estimated that they now account for over ten percent of France’s population
and a quarter of all newborns. They live in compact communities in which it
is no longer possible to buy wine in a local store. Their leaders regard
their faith and culture as superior to that of the host society. Those who
have doubts wisely keep quiet, or else risk a knife slash across the face.
M. Fillon’s “extreme firmness” may well be France’s last chance to stem
the tide: over three million new voters, at least half of them Third World
immigrants, have been added to the electoral roll following the rioting in
October-November 2005; another two million will follow suit before the next
election. They are voting, as their counterparts in America vote, for the
parties reconciled to or actively supportive of the nation’s eventual
self-liquidation. A mere one percent of eligible Muslim voters, to take but
one example, cast their ballot for Sarkozy last month, compared with over
90% for his opponents. They are the unnatural allies of that half of the
French electorate which is dependent on the state for wages, benefits or
pensions. In 2012 they will present a formidable force in favor of
reestablishing the statist status quo.
Whether Sarkozy will make a serious attempt to prevent such outcome
remains to be seen. For now, however, we can only wish President Bush would
say or do some of the things that French government ministers have been
saying and doing over the past week.
Srdja Trifkovic :: Jun.05.2007 :: News & Views :: 1 Comment »
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One Response to “A French Lesson for George W. Bush”
on 05 Jun 2007 at 7:43 pm1Conservative Heritage Times » France Takes
Lead on Immigration
[…] Both George Borjas and Srdja Trifkovic have good things to say about
France’s newly proposed immigration policy, which is almost antithetical to
Bush’s treason. Unlike Bush and his neocon globalist cabal, many in France
actually want to prevent their ancestral lands from becoming a third-world
wasteland. […]
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