The French Republican Model of Integration. A Potential Driver for Extremism

Perhaps only in the time of the crusades the Western rhetoric has been more concerned with the people of Muslim origin. With the Middle East turned into a warring zone by various factions, and the Western world scared of the menace Islamic extremists present, the subject discussed in our paper is very timely. Thousands of people have ϔled to ϔight alongside extremist organizations such as ISIS, European far-right parties are on the rise and refugees are washing off the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. But no Western country is under greater distress than France with its nation troubled by terrorist attacks and by the latest outburst of protests. Analyzing the legal framework within which the French Model of integrating immigrants works, we attempted to assess its effectiveness and lack thereof, in order to try and explain why France is only preceded by Russia when it comes to the number of Westerners joining the rows of ISIL. Our ϔindings include clear evidence about the low quality of life that people of immigrant descent have, the lack of possibilities to overcome their condition, the lack of sustainability that the model exhibits and the escalating effect that the current State of Emergency has on it all. And since all of these constitute drivers for extremism, we consider France to be in urgent need of policy developments that would slow down and even stop the radicalizing trends that we believe are in motion.

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