France needs no-nonsense approach to weeding out domestic terrorism

During a White House press conference last week in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, U.S President Barack Obama took the opportunity to school France on how to fight terrorism through social assimilation and approaches that don’t involve the military or law enforcement. Ironically, he lectured the French while standing just a few miles away from Anacostia, the Washington, D.C., neighborhood for which the French government issued a travel warning in 2013 for its citizens to avoid, day or night.

The problem in both France and the U.S. is the nonstop lip service to nice-sounding but ineffective ideas that are favored over tougher policies enacted during windows of political opportunity.

“Our biggest advantage … is that our Muslim populations feel themselves to be Americans and there is this incredible process of immigration and assimilation that is part of our tradition,” Obama said.

What assimilation process is that, exactly? Is there some kind of Office of Immigration and Integration tasked with ensuring that adult immigrants take courses in civic responsibility and the English language from the moment they apply for a visa? France has had such a process in place since 2007. Immigrants who fail to comply risk the non-renewal of their visas. The only adults exempted from signing this integration pact with the state are professionals deemed to have extraordinary abilities; independent, non-salaried professionals; seasonal workers; and immigrants with years of education in French schools.

It’s a start — and it’s much more than the U.S. has in place, despite Obama’s condescending remarks about the smooth assimilation of immigrants in America — but the standards could be even tighter. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in 2013, when he was interior minister, that “for 75 percent of signatories, [the integration pact] is limited to a few hours of training on ‘Living in France’ and a skills assessment. It’s not up to par.” He’s right. The most obvious solution is to limit immigration to those who fall into the merit-based categories listed above.

Still, no amount of effort to integrate new immigrants can solve the problem of ethnic balkanization that has long existed within France. But addressing that underlying problem constitutes political kryptonite for any French politician.

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