I made the post mostly WRT the Obamamania, and a couple of % is not a big deal in the European figures... "Ethnic Minority" in the US is up around the 25-30% region (again there are lots of definitional problems) so it's a reminder that the societies exist in different situations...
As officially stated by the French government and 2001 French Census reports on the ethnological origins of the French people. Note the French government does not officially classify people by race or ethnicity, in order to encourage integration, assimilation and patriotic unity of all French people regardless of ethnic and national origins as policy since the French Revolution.
An estimate of 10 million French citizens or about one-fifth of the population is of ethnic or national non-French origins. Of European ethnicity, the most prolific are the Italians who make up approximately 10 percent of the population in France. [14] This was due to the most part of Italian immigration stemming from the 16th to the early 20th century. As a result some 10% of French people have some distant or recent Italian origins. Other large European groups are Germans, Spaniards, Portuguese, Polish, and Greek. Also, due to more recent immigration, a total of 3 - 4 million Arab-Berber people inhabit France. The 2008 estimates are: 84% French, 7% North African, 7% Other Europeans.
An estimate of 10 million French citizens or about one-fifth of the population is of ethnic or national non-French origins. Of European ethnicity, the most prolific are the Italians who make up approximately 10 percent of the population in France. [14] This was due to the most part of Italian immigration stemming from the 16th to the early 20th century. As a result some 10% of French people have some distant or recent Italian origins. Other large European groups are Germans, Spaniards, Portuguese, Polish, and Greek. Also, due to more recent immigration, a total of 3 - 4 million Arab-Berber people inhabit France.
The 2008 estimates are: 84% French, 7% North African, 7% Other Europeans.
Talking about Europe as a single group here is rather nonsensical. There are very different traditions. Simply put, Germany remembers its past with race relations largely in the context of national sin, whereas France takes pride in principles that it sees as foundational. Both responses can cause a trend towards greater equality.
Talking about Europe as a single group here is rather nonsensical.
Definitely true... but it the IHT who goes around saying "Obama could never happen in Europe" and implying "the US is superior on race integration, as the Obama election shows."
I just attempt to highlight (in the rush of that kind of thing from the IHT) that the new "non-white" President comes out of a much different "ethnic minority" context, purely in terms of numbers, or "pool of population to draw candidates from", than exists in most European countries.
So comparing the percentage of with-a-non-French-grandparent to the percentage of blacks, asians or latinos in USA is disingenuous. There are indeed not enough representatives of recent minorities in France, but there is one major reason that reinforces the fact: they are recent. It's exceptional that the first generation goes into politics, especially when the immigrants were workers.
There are very few second generation Algerians of Obama's age in France, for example. Yet Obama needed all of Republican incompetence to get there, despite blacks having been there in great numbers for a couple of centuries. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
