Feeling like a citizen
Aug 25, 2010 11:39:08 GMT
Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2010 11:39:08 GMT
Many of you are probably familiar with the Pew Research Center, and I just wish that I would remember to visit their site more often, because it is a trove of fascinating studies regarding all sorts of subjects.
It was brought to my attention reading an article in Le Monde that was analyzing the recent disgraceful behavior of the French government which is trying to make naturalized citizens not as good as ethnic citizens. (Oh, Sarkozy and his clique make my blood boil almost every day – another two years until we can kick him out!)
Anyway, the main point of the article was to figure out what makes a person feel attached to France, whether they were born there or have immigrated from elsewhere, and I was a bit surprised by the conclusions, mostly because I had never really given the matter much thought.
The first element was “equality” – no surprise there – followed by the French language (the official language since 1539). The third element surprised me: “a positive memory of the Revolution,” which is something that no other European country possesses, but which France shares with United States. It represents a dynamic belief in the value of mass mobilization. And the fourth and last element is France’s secularism.
The article points out that France has the largest number of Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, atheists and agnostics in Europe and very little religious tension. This is where the Pew research comes in, with a major study that they made in spring 2006, shortly after the “riots” of autumn 2005 and just 2 years after the banning of headscarves and other religious symbols in public schools.
The Pew researchers found that only 7% of Muslims in the United Kingdom felt British before feeling Muslim (82% felt Muslim above all.). In France, 42% of the Muslims felt French first (as opposed to 46% who felt Muslim first) – not forgetting that half of the Muslims in the country do not have French citizenship. France also turned out to be the European country with the highest percentage of favorable opinions that Christians and Muslims have of each other. And it is the only country in Europe where a majority of the Muslims (74%) have a favorable opinion of Jews.
A year later, a Louis Harris study of the United States and 5 major European countries found that France was the only country where a majority of people (69%) say they have one or more Muslim friends, as opposed to 38% of the British and 28% of the Americans. (Frankly, this last study sound kinds of dumb to me, since France is the country with the highest percentage of Muslims – it’s only normal to have more Muslim friends.)
I know that France often seems quite heavy-handed with its desire to turn everybody in the country into a French person with French values instead of leaving the various ethnic and religious groups alone to live however they want. (Actually, they do leave them alone for their private lives – with a few exceptions like genital mutilation – but in public one is expected be more or less “French.”
I think it works pretty well, but when one is a member of the majority group, it is impossible not to be somewhat biased.
Does anybody else have any thoughts on what makes you feel like a citizen of your country? And do you feel that the various minorities are trying to fit in or are they staying apart?
It was brought to my attention reading an article in Le Monde that was analyzing the recent disgraceful behavior of the French government which is trying to make naturalized citizens not as good as ethnic citizens. (Oh, Sarkozy and his clique make my blood boil almost every day – another two years until we can kick him out!)
Anyway, the main point of the article was to figure out what makes a person feel attached to France, whether they were born there or have immigrated from elsewhere, and I was a bit surprised by the conclusions, mostly because I had never really given the matter much thought.
The first element was “equality” – no surprise there – followed by the French language (the official language since 1539). The third element surprised me: “a positive memory of the Revolution,” which is something that no other European country possesses, but which France shares with United States. It represents a dynamic belief in the value of mass mobilization. And the fourth and last element is France’s secularism.
The article points out that France has the largest number of Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, atheists and agnostics in Europe and very little religious tension. This is where the Pew research comes in, with a major study that they made in spring 2006, shortly after the “riots” of autumn 2005 and just 2 years after the banning of headscarves and other religious symbols in public schools.
The Pew researchers found that only 7% of Muslims in the United Kingdom felt British before feeling Muslim (82% felt Muslim above all.). In France, 42% of the Muslims felt French first (as opposed to 46% who felt Muslim first) – not forgetting that half of the Muslims in the country do not have French citizenship. France also turned out to be the European country with the highest percentage of favorable opinions that Christians and Muslims have of each other. And it is the only country in Europe where a majority of the Muslims (74%) have a favorable opinion of Jews.
A year later, a Louis Harris study of the United States and 5 major European countries found that France was the only country where a majority of people (69%) say they have one or more Muslim friends, as opposed to 38% of the British and 28% of the Americans. (Frankly, this last study sound kinds of dumb to me, since France is the country with the highest percentage of Muslims – it’s only normal to have more Muslim friends.)
I know that France often seems quite heavy-handed with its desire to turn everybody in the country into a French person with French values instead of leaving the various ethnic and religious groups alone to live however they want. (Actually, they do leave them alone for their private lives – with a few exceptions like genital mutilation – but in public one is expected be more or less “French.”
I think it works pretty well, but when one is a member of the majority group, it is impossible not to be somewhat biased.
Does anybody else have any thoughts on what makes you feel like a citizen of your country? And do you feel that the various minorities are trying to fit in or are they staying apart?
