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Internet platform for studying Xenophobia, Radicalism and Problems of Intercultural communication.

Recommendations

Recommendations

Modern France is a classic example of a country where the crisis of the nation-state manifests itself most vividly. The crisis of the nation-state is the growing contradiction between a country's assimilationist policy of creating a nation-state based on the traditions of the ethnic majority and the expectations of national and religious minorities.

As already indicated, the French constitutional tradition states that all citizens of the country will be equal until a group declares its special interests. At the same time, it suggests that the French nation state is based on the French national and cultural tradition. This means that the traditions of the title ethnos (the French) form the basis of the entire French nation. Consequently, the titular nation monopoly has its advantages. The rest have only one privilege - to become French, albeit of different ethnic or religious origin, i.e. to voluntarily assimilate.

For more than a hundred years, this model was accepted by immigrants from third world countries who came to France with the readiness to assimilate and become French. Moreover, they were attracted to this model, which denied any ethnic or cultural differences between its citizens and thereby protected their equality before the law. The crisis arose in more recent years, when immigrants arriving into France became unwilling to assimilate. They brought with them a new ideology and a new way of life that seemed more attractive to them than the liberal secular ideology of Europe.

Moreover, this new ideology and a new way of life seemed attractive to a significant part of the immigrants of the second and even third generation, who had already lived in the country for a long time.

Today in France, about 75% of Muslims feel "more or less" or "unconditionally" French first, and identify by their religion, their ethnicity or country of origin second. But that leaves 25% who reject this model of assimilation. For them, their ethnic, religious and geographical origin is primary. They do not consider themselves French, although for many of them were born here.

The situation could be corrected if the ideologues of the French nation state did not simply declare adherence to multiculturalism, but in practice would take into account the national and religious interests of national minorities, and the state would control the cultural and educational processes in their midst. However, instead the French Senate rejected the law submitted by the government on the ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, although it was about recognizing the regional languages of minorities culturally and historically close to the French - Basque, Breton, Catalans, Corsicans, Dutch, Germans and Provencals. What is there to say about Arabs and natives of Africa? France does not recognize any ethnic minorities, referring to its constitutional tradition, and in fact to the tradition of a classical European nation state.

The unpreparedness of the French authorities to accept this new reality, as well as a new model for a nation-state, with a big shift toward recognizing the cultural and linguistic rights of national minorities, has led to the creation of a kind of ghetto in large settlements. As already mentioned, this pertains not just to first generation immigrants, but also to large compact immigrant groups of the second and even third generation, which the state leaves in an ideological and cultural vacuum. The complicated issue here is that these groups perceive Europe as their homeland (they were really born there), but they want to change the identity of Europeans in a way that corresponds to their traditional notions, at least in places of their compact settlement. This has already led to a split in society, and created the basis for the growth of xenophobia, mutual hostility, discrimination and the strengthening of the influence of extremist groups on both sides.

  1. General recommendations for the accession to international agreements and conventions.

To overcome the crisis of the traditional nation-state France needs to review its unifying approach regarding its national and language policies. It is recommended to join major international agreements aimed at ensuring the rights of ethnic minorities and to ratify the signed documents. We are talking about accession to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the ratification of the European Charter on regional languages and minority languages, as well as the withdrawal of reservations to Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of the United Nations of 1966. France also encouraged reviewing its position on non-alignment with the resolutions of the UN General Assembly, directed against the glorification of Nazism, as the data resolution is fully consistent with the policies FR aimed at the inviolability of borders and the inadmissibility of the post-war rehabilitation of Nazism.

    2. General recommendations for adjustments to the legal framework.

By joining international agreements, France has to adjust to them with its national legislation starting with the Constitution (Article 2), as well as to introduce a number of regulations aimed at the protection of minorities.

    3. General recommendations for the executive bodies in the field of enforcement of law and human rights:

  • Publication of an annual public report that will focus on the far right, far left and radical Islam and show the reality of their ideology, practices and the strength of their organizational structure.
  • Adopting a legal definition of what constitutes right-wing radicalism and right-wing extremism, what constitutes the extreme left and the radical left, according to the level of threat they pose to the Constitution. Such a distinction exists in Germany and clearly shows what is permissible because it does not threaten the constitutional order, and what should be prohibited because it poses a threat. Clarification of the term "far-right," which is often used in the media to describe violent movements. This distinction is very difficult to put into law when it comes to Islam, since a secular state means that the authorities leave it to the clergy to speak on religious issues.
  • Funding for social science research on radicalism, its history, current significance and activities, with particular emphasis on transnational connections.

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