You Shouldn’t Have to Burn Cars to Get a Better Life—Ask My Bolivian Cleaning Lady
Both Britain and France have endured violence at the hands of their Muslim minorities in recent months: Britain in the July 7 London Underground attacks; France in the wave of nationwide rioting that has now gone on for more than a week. They need not endure such violence in the future. Their problem is not so much an excess of immigration as it is a lack of assimilation: the Muslim youths who have struck London and Paris have spent their whole lives in their families' adopted countries without living in their adopted cultures. To help immigrants integrate better, France and Britain should turn to the example of United States. They must inculcate immigrant minorities in their nations' common histories and cultures, and in turn open those immigrants to the opportunities of their adopted societies and economies. Great Britain is making a move in that direction with last week's adoption of a new citizenship test. Though the US' own handling of immigration is far from perfect, France and Britain still have much to learn from the riot-free immigrant communities in the United States. – YaleGlobal
You Shouldn't Have to Burn Cars to Get a Better Life—Ask My Bolivian Cleaning Lady
Monday, November 7, 2005
Click here for the original article on The Telegraph's website.
Niall Ferguson is Laurence A Tisch Professor of History at Harvard and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford. www.niallferguson.org
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© Niall Ferguson, 2005/© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.