Tahar Ben Jelloun and the French immigration debate

The Franco-Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun believes the immigration debate in France shows the degree to which mentalities need to change. "Immigrants are always the ones who are attacked, singled out and served up as scapegoats to those with pronounced xenophobic tendencies. ... Chance would have it that a film ['Indigenes', or 'Natives'], about the role of Maghrebin and African soldiers [mobilised to fight on the French side] during the Second World War, was presented at Cannes and its cast awarded with a collective prize. ... The same France that is today discovering this chapter of history, applauds Sarkozy's immigration law. At the same time, it is surprised that the grandchildren of these natives are now part of the suburban demonstrations aimed at forcing their country to recognise them and take an interest in their future. But France is deaf. It refuses to read its recent history and learn from its lessons. It sinks into amnesia and believes that in so doing it will find a way out of its perennial crisis." 

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