Presumably these are the same French youths of indeterminate religion who burned over a thousand cars on New Years. The lazy rioters couldn’t even beat their own previous record, falling 10 short of the 1,147 cars they torched last year. So it could be that France’s hiring freeze is a function of a lethargic and unappealing labor pool. That’s one theory.
Another theory is that the country’s welfare policies and labor protections are responsible, having drained capital out of the economy and increased the risk of hiring. Those would be the same policies and protections that were supposed to aid and assimilate France’s immigrant populations. How ironic would that be?
Economists have warned that it will take longer to see any recovery in the job market. As a result, the greatest human drama associated with the crisis — families thrown into distress and horizons closed for millions of youths — seems likely to endure as part of the European landscape for another year and probably more. “They keep having me come back,” Chakiyet explained, “but I have not been able to get a single appointment with an employer. They don’t seem to have their hearts in it.” Legislation that provided Western Europeans with a strong safety net and buffered them from the worst effects of the crisis is now likely to inhibit job growth, even if the continent’s economies return to growt… The decision to hire a worker involves such a large commitment and layoffs are so expensive, economists say, that businessmen hesitate to make a decision until they are sure a recovery is underway.
The guy they’re quoting is Mohamed Chakiyet, 19, of Marseilles, France. The NYT took note of the city – the country’s second-largest, where over 25% of the population is Muslim – in a writeup last month. Apparently “xenophobic anxiety” is preventing French citizens from viewing Marseilles’s Great Mosque as a symbol of secular, Republican integration. Stupid French! Why can’t they be less xenophobically anxious?
And isn’t it a little late to be raising concerns about daily, visible markers of Islamic demographic domination? Halal ads long ago flooded France’s TVs and supermarkets. Certainly the string of Islamist synagogue bombings – stretching from the early 1980s through contemporary times – has long had a distinctly unintegrated feel.
In fairness the French have certainly taken notice of their radical and unassimilated immigrant populations. Ergo their welfare and labor legislation. The problem is that – instead of integrating and moderating Muslim immigrants – the policies sociologically enfeebled mainstream French citizens and emboldened Muslim radicals. In the process they’ve locked themselves into a cycle where they’re helpless even according to multiculturalist “Muslims only becomes insane jihadists when they don’t have jobs” logic.
If only someone could have seen that coming.
References and related after the jump…
References:
* For workers in Western Europe, economic recovery seems a long way off [WaPo]
* French Mosque’s Symbolism Varies With Beholder [NYT]
* Halal Ads Hit French TV [TIME]
* French officials: Ottawa university professor helped in Paris bombing [JPost]
* German, Tunisian Sentenced in Synagogue Attack [ABC News]
* OneJerusalem.org Conference Call: Mark Steyn [MR]
* America Alone By Mark Steyn
Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* France
* Islam In Europe
* Political Islam
