Quote:
Originally Posted by Truenorth00
For the record I don't think you give a shit about skin colour. But I do wonder if your view of "integration" is simply that my kid learn nothing about where they come from. Where's that line between integration and assimilation?
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No. Assimilation means: your kids speak with the same accent as "natives" who have lived here for centuries. They share the same references (cartoons, games, jokes, etc), speak the same slang, understand and share the same historical and cultural basics of the country. They also importantly dress like the natives. And it's even better if they have the same given names (prénoms) as the natives (the Chinese, for example, keep one Chinese name that they use between themselves, but adopt a Western name to be used with other people in the Western society where they live). Armenian immigrants who arrived in France in the 1920s gave their children given names like André or Pierre, for instance. That helps tremendously for integration.
If you do all these things, and are law abiding, etc, I can tell you 95%+ of people here will simply not care at all about your skin color or where you ancestors came from. You're just "part of the family".
On the other hand, if your parents called you Latifa (despite being 3rd generation immigrants), you wear a veil, you speak with a pronounced banlieue accent, you refuse to drink any alcohol, you watch more Middle Eastern cable television than local television, you're complicated about any social gathering, refuse to be seated next to men, you're virulent about Gaza and bore everyone with Palestine, you made a point never to sing the national anthem at yearly ceremonies in high school, you don't give a damn about the history of the country, you perhaps even share videos of banlieue kids burning the national flag, etc, then yes, life is going to be a bit complicated for you... and you're probably going to say that people are racist (puh-lease!).