A CONTENTIOUS debate over whether the state should begin collecting statistics on the ethnic background of its citizens has reignited in France after a senior socialist figure said ending the “taboo” would help social integration.
In a book on security and crime published tomorrow, Manuel Valls, contesting the Socialist Party’s presidential primary, argues that recording the ethnic make-up of the country would help fight discrimination and guide government planning. The issue – a source of controversy in France – has also been placed on the agenda with a proposal from the official body charged with monitoring integration that the state collect figures on the origins of immigrants and their children.
While stopping short of calling for statistics on ethnicity, the Council on Integration said, “France needs to know more about itself”.
“These geographical, objective facts would allow us to better understand the French reality, the concentration of immigrants in certain regions, the social mobility of their children.”
The council argued that immigrants and their children – who account for one-fifth of French residents – were too concentrated in certain regions, notably Ile-de-France, which includes Paris, and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. It suggested making long-term visas contingent on holders settling in regions best-equipped to receive them. “If new arrivals settle continually in areas where immigrants are numerous, the chances of integration will reduce,” it added.
The debate over collecting information on ethnicity received a mixed response. Patrick Lozès, an advocate of ethnicity statistics and president of an umbrella group of black people’s associations, said the report was an “important first step, but must go further”. But Mouloud Aounit of the anti-racism group MRAP said the report was “dangerous and superficial”.
Historian Patrick Weil also expressed misgivings. “In France, unlike the United States, we have a historical reticence about counting ourselves by ethnicity or skin colour, because it brings to mind Vichy, colonialism or slavery,” he said.
The rise of the far-right Front National has made immigration a political battleground. Interior minister Claude Guéant has said he wants to raise the number of illegal immigrants expelled from France, and cut legal migrants from 200,000 to 180,000.
Earlier this month, Mr Guéant – a close confidant of President Nicolas Sarkozy – said French people “sometimes have the feeling that they’re no longer in their own country”.