‘Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité’ for Whom? Integration Challenges for North African Immigrants in France

Abstract

Scholars have tried to explain the failure oft the integration of North African immigrants in France by focusing on the cultural differences between immigrants and the French that have rendered integration and insertion difficult. Other scholars have also attributed their lack of integration to their socioeconomic position. But, while both of these explanations are well-founded, they are not enough to explain the systematic failure of these immigrants to integrate. This paper performed a comparative analysis between the situation France with those in the Netherlands and in Britain. By looking at the integration policies in each country, I argue that, if the Netherlands and Britain are able to better integrate their immigrants, the explanation can be found in the differences between their integration policies and that of France. Both the Netherlands and Britain emphasize the acknowledgment of race and ethnicity in their integration policies, something that France does not do. France should abandon its difference-blind republican model of integration in order to create a policy that actively assists its North African immigrants.