You completely misread my post and ignored my point. Which is fine. But for the record, my data and link (if you had looked) were for the US and were in rebuttal to your claim re the 1920′s above. I was making a hypothetical comparison of proportionality of immigrant groups between France and the US. Sixty million French, six million Africans/muslims, three hundred million Americans, thirty million Africans/muslims, in the last thirty years. As I said, our ‘melting pot’ would be cherry red.

Get your facts straight. First, non-EU country immigration ranged from about 60,000 to 110,000 per year, not “a million”, during the 1990s and the last five years. Second, as I’ve pointed out before, this is vastly lower than Britain’s annual non-EU country immigration dueing the same period, which ranged from 160,000 to 300,000 annually. Again, the point here is that France’s policy is far stricter than Britain’s, or for that matter almost any EU nation.

Second, only about 40% of the non-EU immigrants were from Africa, and about a third of these were not arab or berber (ie, were from sub-Saharan Africa). It’s simply bogus to argue that la belle France is being inundated by a colossal wave of muslim immigrants.

Third, most of these already had family members in France, which underscores my point that the big waves of immigation occurred more than a generation ago, during the 1950s and 1960s. The assimilation problem is less pressing than the economic problem. If these immigrants somehow had easy access to stable employment– as their grandparents and parents did when they arrived during the beginning of France’s postwar boom (known as les trente glorieuses, or the 30 years of “glorious” eonomic growth)– then the assimilation problem would be far more manageable.

In future, please consult my research assistant, Monsieur Google, before making claims about statistical data that can be easily verified.

peaked thirty years ago in France. Today, and for at least two decades, France has had one of the strictest immigration policies in the western world. So it’s wrong

but it would seem that the highest percentage of immigrants vs. total US population was about 15 percent around 1905. Of that immigrant population approximately 80 percent were from Western and Northern Europe. By 1920 the percentage was down a point or two from peak and continued to decline until 1970. It now matches the 1905 level.

Not at all the situation in France as I described above. In your optimistic exuberance, I think you are avoiding my question and point. And besides, I am talking current numbers, which would mean 30 million immigrants, a million a year for the last thirty years, all of a particular group, all with decidedly different ideas on goals and aspirations. Our melting pot would be cherry red I think.

And no, “I think you’re getting hung up on an image of France’s africans as Islamists” I’m not. But from my readings in the last four years I think your figures and estimation of degree of influence by Islam could use some upward adjustment. Else why the ban on hijab?

As I say, the right-wing anti-Islamist blogosphere is doing to this story what the anti-Bush media did to the Katrina story. Namely, desperately seeking evidence to superimpose a predetermined meme of their choosing (“tHe InTIfaDA!!! bArBARiAnS aT THe gATeS Of vIeNNa!!!”) on story that’s manifestly about something else.

selectively burning cars that appear to be owned by non-Muslims and sparing those that have indications of Muslim ownership. Torching of an occasional church (probably something that you approve of.) and sparing Mosques.

I would be careful about taking these as truth. Some strike me as war rumors of the sort that almost always arise in these situations. who has been making inventory of the cars? Remember the stories about Germans bayonetting babies in Belgium at the start of WWI? Ok, I’m not that old either, but I think these reports need to be taken with a grain of salt.

You continue to beat the drum for the “root causes” meme despite the growning body of evidence that rioters are chanting Allah Akbar, selectively burning cars that appear to be owned by non-Muslims and sparing those that have indications of Muslim ownership. Torching of an occasional church (probably something that you approve of.) and sparing Mosques. But you know what the say…

Foolish consistancy is the mark of small minds…

The problem for France is that their industrial model favors, or I should say, purchases labor peace from, older unionized workers at the expense of the young, whose unemployment rates remain at Depression-levels across not just France but Germany and Spain as well. Screw the kids; pamper the labor aristocrats. The kids– black and white, mind you– aren’t willing to take it anymore, but no one gives a f— about young voters in any country. They never turn out in numbers anywhere near the turnout shown by older voters.