Today is the French version of "A Day Without Immigrants" of Monday, May 1, 2006 organized by Latino immigrants in the United States.
That day, Latino immigrants rocked the U.S., with:
"hundreds of thousands of peaceful protestors who turned out in major cities across the country on Monday clearly conveyed their message that immigrants are essential to the U.S. economy and deserve the right to continue living and working here. With rallies in more than 50 cities from Las Vegas to Miami, the day of protest brought together immigrants from all walks of life and appeared to overcome early concerns that rifts within the Latino community would hamper their success."The French version won't certainly have such a disruptive impact.
According to the daily Le Monde, France has never bothered to measure the real impact of immigrants on its economy, though some census reports in 2007 put the number of immigrants working in the country at 11.3%. In some industries, as in the hotel and restaurant businesses, immigrants represent even a larger share of the workforce: up to 20%.
The French movement of A Day Without Immigrants is also different from its U.S. Latino counterpart in that it has different causes and motivations. It stemmed, according to the ezine Rue89, in August of last year around a coffee shop table, from the exasperation three friends with immigration roots felt about the nasty drift being taken by the debate in France about "national identity" launched by Eric Besson, the French Minister of Immigration and National Identity (an ill-named ministry created by the Sarkozy administration) to woo the extreme right-wing voters of the Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National.In that debate French citizens of North-African and Sub-Saharan African origins feel that they are being singled out and targeted for abuse as second-class citizens--though they were born and bred in France. For example, Nadir Dendoune, one of the founders of the movement (photo below), so far this year has been stopped four times by cops on the streets for ID checks, and he estimates that on average his ID is checked at least 10 times a year (in France cops on the beat are allowed to check the immigration status of passersby in the streets and to make arrests for deportation of illegal immigrants).
Peggy Derder, 32, Nadir Dendoune, 37, and Nadia Lamarkbi, 35
The three who launched "La journée sans immigrés"
The movement "La journée sans immigrés" these three friends created around a coffee shop table has now 66 000 active members and its impact, however tame today, will be felt in the streets throughout the metropolitan centers in France.
Their manifesto reads (their own translation):
"We, women and men, of all beliefs, of all political positions, and of all skin colours, immigrants, immigrants' descendants, citizens, conscious of the important contribution of immigration to our country, have enough of unworthy remarks made by certain political officials aiming at stigmatizing or criminalizing immigrants and their descendants.
Let us recall that an immigrant is perceived as he is by the others even beyond his own origins. We would like to re-adapt and to rehabilitate this term which is used in a derogatory way because of the political instrumentalisation.
We refuse the (conveyed) stereotypes which threaten our social cohesion. We refuse that the past, present and future’ benefits of immigrants who built and continue to build France are denied. So it depends on us to emphasize the importance of immigrants in this country!
Immigrants and descendants of immigrants held several demonstrations to defend their rights. But they were scornfully rejected! So as it is agreed that “consumption is the engine of growth, indignation stirs us to action!!!
The 1st of March 2005 was the day the “code of foreigners' entry and stay and right to asylum” came into effect. This law symbolizes a utilitarian conception of immigration, in other words, an immigration based on economic requirements. We couldn't have picked a better day to call for “a Day without immigrants”.We, immigrants, immigrants' descendants, citizens are aware of the contribution of immigration to our country”, we all generate economic growth of this country.
Our citizen’s approach assesses the potential contribution of each one of us to the economic prosperity. We have the Power to decide on our future, to take action and have our say on it!
March the 1st, 2010: we will abstain from consumer spending and /or working.
During 24 hours, so let us abstain from working in companies, associations, attending colleges, hospitals, buying, selling…For the first time in France, we decide not to take part in the life of “la Cité”.We will mark our presence by our absence !"
Rue89 made a photo lineup of the most powerful members of the current French government (including Nicholas Sarkozy himself) and noted the uncannines of the fact that "several ministers have at least one foreign grandparent" in the deleterious climate of the hullabaloo over national identity:
Rue89 lineup of French government officials with "at least one foreign grandparent"
From left to right:
1. Rama Yade: Secretary of State for Sports: Born in Senegal.
2. Nadine Mareno: Secretary of State for Family: Daughter of an Italian truck driver.
3. Fadela Amara: Secretary of State for Urban Policies: Both parents are Algerian immigrants.
4. Eric Besson: (nasty) Minister of Immigration and National Identity: Born in Morocco to a Lebanese mother.
5. Patrick Devedjan: Minister for the Economic Recovery: Son of an Armenian born in Turkey.
6. Nicholas Sarkozy: his father is an immigrant from Hungary.
UPDATE (MARCH 1, 2010): WELL, THEY SOMEHOW PULLED IT, EVEN AS FAR AS IN ITALY, WITH 20 000 DEMONSTRATORS IN NAPLES:
From noon to 2 p.m., hundreds of people showed up outside Paris City Hall
According to the daily Le Parisien, hundreds of people showed up outside Paris City Hall. It's even significant that Le Parisien reported the news in its business section, for among the hundreds that gathered at City Hall were many immigrant (or immigration-issued) CEOs, senior executives, engineers, workers and students.
Alexandre Mesin, a French engineer whose wife Weiwei was born in France to Chinese parents, said: "The message of citizens who showed up here is clear: we are sick and tired of hearing immigration being discussed as a menace and not as an enrichment" for France.
Le Parisien also explains that the date of March 1 was chosen because it marks the 5th anniversary of the law known under its French acronym of CESEDA (Code on entry and residence permit for foreigners and asylum rights) that based "chosen immigration" on economic viability criteria of immigration seekers, a law that acknowledges the economic impact of foreigners.
Still according to Le Parisien, the movement has now a European outreach--with movements in Greece, Spain and Italy that also organized demonstrations on March 1. In Naples, 20 000 African demonstrators took to the streets "to show the faces of 'New Italians.' "
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