INTEGRATING FRENCH MUSLIMS: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MULTICULTURALISM AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE REPUBLICAN MODEL OF ASSIMILATION

Abstract

The series of terrorist attacks in France since the early 2000s, many committed by French-born Muslims, caused renewed concern about the integration of France’s large Muslim minority. While integration challenges are arguably not the root cause of radicalization among French Muslims, they are likely a contributing factor. This thesis considers the potential benefits and feasibility of adopting a multicultural policy framework as an alternative to the traditional French Republican model of integration in order to improve the integration of French Muslims and to potentially curb radicalization. Many French Muslims are concentrated in isolated suburban areas characterized by poor education opportunities, unemployment, and crime. French Muslims have also been disproportionately affected by France’s commitment to a strict laïque secularism that has made it exceedingly difficult for them to establish an improved religious infrastructure. Furthermore, French Muslims often suffer from exclusion, discrimination, and even hate crimes. This thesis contends that multicultural policies could have some positive effects on integration in the area of religious rights accommodation, but such policies are unlikely to significantly improve the overall integration of French Muslims because their primary concerns are social acceptance and obtaining full access to their individual rights as French citizens and not differential group rights.