Now that I think of it...

My last post, below, is not very good. The thinking is muddled and I apologize. I'll post again on the French riots and immigration more specifically. It's important, I think, to conceive of immigration in three ways or stages (though they are not necessarily chronological, but merely emergent in the phenomenon): exploitation, integration, and assimilation. These three concepts are useful in conceptualizing the process of imigration and the cultural dialogue it produces in both the immigrant and dominant societies. All three are on display in the French riots. Of course I have no particular or specialized knowledge of the French issues, but I think that the analysis is applicable broadly across the experiences of First/Third World immigration populations. My thinking was developed in the instance US/Mexico immigration. More later.