France`s public policy towards muslim migrants under the presidency of Nicholas Sarkozy (2007-2012)

Abstract

This study explores France’s public policy towards French Muslims of immigrant origin under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012). This study is qualitative in nature, and is based mainly upon reliable primary and secondary data. The aim of this study is to thematically explain and analyze the French public policy under Sarkozy’s leadership. The growing concern on Muslims in Western Europe in general and in France in particular reflects a complex relation in terms of public policies. Over recent years, tensions between Muslim population and native Europeans have grown into riots and violence and captured the attention of media worldwide. This study tackles three angles of research: firstly, the study explores France’s political philosophy known as laïcité which remains a powerful reality in the country’s public policy since the establishment of the law of December 1905 on separation of Church and State. Secondly, the study assesses the role and functions of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), as an official platform created by Nicolas Sarkozy to communicate with the Muslim religious authority in France. Thirdly, the study analyzes the changes of immigration and integration policy during Sarkozy’s quinquennat, and discusses the policy implications of the immigration and integration law on French Muslims of immigrant origins and the Muslim immigrants coming to France. The study uses elite model of public policy to approach the issue under research. The study finds that assertive laicism and the republican ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity are not compatible with the French public policies which restrict French Muslims freedoms of religious exercise beyond the private sphere.