"To them, we no longer exist..."

Writer Malika Sorel's pro-France and pro-nationhood positions are unusually lucid and surprisingly candid. She stands far removed from many other Algerians in France who regularly manifest their hatred of their host country. Recently she wrote an assessment of a meeting of European ministers organized by the French Minister of Immigration and National Identity, Eric Besson (photo). Read more about Malika Sorel at the end:

Yesterday morning I attended a ministerial seminar organized by Eric Besson on the theme "The migrations in the lands of the Mediterranean: constructing a space of shared prosperity". Insofar as many journalists covered the seminar, I feel safe in sharing with you a few high points.

The ministers of Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, and Egypt were among the guests.

One expert set the tone right away by declaring that since the European population was aging, three possibilities ensued. I quote them:

1. We delay the age of retirement. Not a very popular measure.

2. We put more women in the workplace. That would have a negative effect on the birth rate.

3. We organize international migrations.

And with these words, obviously intended to allow the ministers to begin their well-prepared speeches, the main theme of the morning was set: since the North was not producing children, and the South producing many (they actually said it), it was necessary to agree to organize migratory waves from the South to the North. Several ministers even declared that since immigration, in any case, was occurring illegally when it was not authorized, it would be preferable to legalize and organize it. They also said that 75% of the youth of Tunisia were considering leaving their country...

Here is a sampling of the words uttered by the ministers from northern countries:

- "The countries of the North need labor."

- "Immigration increases the competitiveness of the countries of the North."

- "Immigration benefits the countries of the South as well as those of the North."

- "Since labor from the South is unskilled and since the North will need more and more a supply of skilled labor, the Northern countries must help train the labor from the South so that it can fulfill the requirements."

- "We must have a flexible policy of visas in order to facilitate the movement of these immigration influxes."

- "We must facilitate the ability of the immigrants to remain in contact with their homelands and to transfer a part of their earnings."

- "We must organize welcoming committees in such a way that they recognize their diversity. At any rate, it's the example that will be used everywhere. Priority must be given to the fight against discrimination."

- "A world without immigration would be a world more divided, more radical."

- "Poverty and the lack of development were caused by colonization."

"Immigration is perhaps the solution to the crisis," a Swedish minister said solemnly.

The two ministers from the South asked that their nationals be well-treated in the host countries, and that in the rush to organize migratory influxes from the South into the North, care be taken to maintain the powerful ties with the homeland, in order for migrants to transfer money back to their country of origin (...) The Moroccan minister emphasized that these migrants (the Moroccan community abroad) constituted a diaspora, and that Morocco would actively take care of them. The Egyptian minister began his speech with "In the name of Allah the most merciful..." and formulated the hope that the Arabic language become more common in the future in the Mediterranean bassin.

Eric Besson concluded the meeting thus: "We must accelerate and increase the mass movements."

All the ministers signed the "Paris recommendation on the promotion of the mobility of young persons in the Mediterranean space," of which this is an excerpt: "Reaffirming their determination to build a common Mediterranean future, they agree on the necessity to give priority to youth in the construction of a Mediterranean space for the movement of persons, of knowledge and of skills."

A Mediterranean office of youth will be created by January 1, 2011. Its goal will be to facilitate the free movement of students of certain universities, and to provide them with grants. (...)

During this entire morning it was patently clear that European peoples were of no interest to the European ministers. It was as if Europe was an uninhabited land, or soon to become one, and there was a need to people it. The only moment when you felt that Europeans still existed in the minds of these ministers was when mention was made of the need to fight against the discrimination that these migrants would be victims of...

This morning showed me, as if it was still necessary to do so, the extent to which this European "elite" was sometimes more concerned about the interests of foreign populations that about those of their own people. It is indeed this elite that is responsible for the current situation, and not the immigrants. Henceforth, only the European populations themselves will be able to spare their countries chaos, and at the same time save their lives and those of their descendants, for it is clear that what is being planned for us by leaders who don't even realize it, is a proliferation of Balkan States throughout the European Union. We are indeed far away from the dreams of the founding fathers!

Malika Sorel closes with the belief that national cohesion is an absolute necessity and that "power springs up when men act together!"

Malika Sorel is a writer of Algerian origin who was born and educated in France. Having lived for a long time in North Africa, she focuses her interest on the education of young people, political policies relevant to the family, the problems of immigration and French foreign policy. In 2007, she wrote a book entitled Le Puzzle de l'Intégration (The Puzzle of Integration), published by Mille et Une Nuits. Nicolas Sarkozy named her to the High Council on Integration in 2009, a government-sponsored think tank created in 1989 and assigned the mission of studying the integration of foreigners into France. The agency issues an annual report on its findings to the prime minister.

I borrowed the title she used for her own article.

Update: January 9, 2010 - The original photo I had posted has been removed, since it was not a photo of Malika Sorel as I thought, and replaced by that of Eric Besson. I have not yet found a photo of Sorel.