HSN Immigration Blog

Fervent race riots spring up across the French countryside. French President Nicolas Sarkozy enthusiastically declares his commitment to dismantle and disband squatter camps, mainly occupied by Romanian and Bulgarian Roma (Gypsies). Nationwide, France contains more than 300 sites with Roma squatters. The high-profile campaign of deportations is an attempt to win back conservative support in response to protests that have sometimes been violent. Conservative fears of foreign invasion charge that the Romas engage in illegal trafficking, child exploitation, prostitution and other crimes, and that they live in poor living conditions.

While these vices are cause for legitimate concern, some observers wonder to what extent these claims against the Roma are simply being used to scapegoat France’s problems. Are the expulsions being used as a sort of bizarre, misguided social reform? In some respects these expulsions are somewhat reminiscent of the large-scale arrest schemes during WWII to purge France of Jews and Gypsies. Singling out the Romas, the French president flirts with nationalism and xenophobia, forces that led to the dangerous poisoning of minds and unspeakable atrocities not many decades ago.

What does this have to do with us across the Atlantic pond? Mistreatment of the Romas has increased tensions between the United States and France, two allied democracies whose relationship has already suffered great strain in recent years. Some Americans may view the mass deportations as an excuse to chastise the French, accusing them of “arrogant” ways. Unfortunately, similar acts have occurred on American soil, so the French may justifiably counter with accusations of hypocrisy. We lament Israeli walls as we build our border fences. More subtly, Americans have long harbored tendencies to scapegoat and ship off immigrant groups, effectively eliminating or quarantining groups of people according to race: the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese internment camps, atrocities against Native Americans, etc. come to mind. Considering our “recent” southern border woes—actually, migrants have been crossing the Southwest since well before the current national borders existed—the United States seems to want this scapegoating tradition to be alive and thrive.

It is easy to condescendingly scold France, but when, as now, economic or political problems hit home, the mirror reflects the log in our own eye as relates to immigrants. We are quick to ship “others” out of sight. We need to re-embrace our founding principles, among them immigration, for better or for worse, lest we end up eating the words that several decades ago we promised not to forget: “Never Again!”

Andrew Sagartz & Jordan Hynes
www.BennuLegal.org
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