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“France has failed on the integration front. Its assimilationist policy, which aims to transform every immigrant into a French citizen, doesn’t work. It has produced squalid ghettos in which people live as second rate citizens. Thinking that France could simply impose its own values as if they were absolute and unquestionable, as if immigrants were deprived of their own cultural and religious traditions worthy of respect, was a huge mistake. I see the consequences of this policy on a daily basis, first hand.”
These are the words of Sister Valeria Rubin, a 73-year-old Scalabrinian nun of the association Enfants d’Aujourd’hui, Monde de Demain (Today’s Children, Tomorrow’s world) based in the French city of Marseille and founded by the Scalabrinian family in 1987: “Our Centre (the association’s head offices) is located in the city’s 3rd arrondissement and is home to thousands of first, second and third generation immigrants, many of whom are Muslims: this is Europe’s poorest neighbourhood. But compared to other cities like Paris and Lyon, the social tension here – caused by soaring unemployment – is far less acute. This is thanks to a robust network of associations that promotes and fosters relations, understanding and mutual respect, with numerous initiatives being organised in support of those in greatest difficulty. Christian-Muslim relations for example are good. The state certainly isn’t to thank for that, in fact it is considered by the people to be absent.”
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