In short, the absence of fluency in the host language, little or no education beyond high school, and retention of much of their home country’s culture all conspire to keep millions of unassimilated immigrants — in both France and the U.S. — stuck in ethnic enclaves and static jobs that usually don’t pay enough to ensure a middle-class existence for larger-than-average families. This is true even without the specter of prevailing racism and undeniable discrimination. And by middle age their physically demanding jobs often leave such workers injured, ill, or disabled.

The Politics of Resentment

The problem is not that it is impossible for thousands of maids, street sweepers, fruit pickers, and gardeners to move up to become electricians, small contractors, and government officials, in either France or the U.S. But the pool of newly arrived young immigrants who cannot advance quickly is so large — and growing — that our failures in upward mobility overshadow our successes. In postmodern societies, the number of immigrants is a force multiplier, inasmuch as near-instant parity for all is taken to be the only benchmark of success. Therefore the collective failure of millions is far more relevant politically than the individual success of thousands.

If Islam bolsters resistance to assimilation on the part of French immigrants from the Maghreb, illegality alienates Hispanic immigrants whose cars, taxes, and official documentation exist in a netherworld off the books. Hence many Hispanic youths — like the Arab population of France, but unlike the Cuban, Korean, or Sikh populations in the U.S. — embrace varying degrees of ethnic chauvinism to decry de facto inequality.

Consider, for example, the radical agenda of some of the most vocal ethnic separatists. The slogans of MEChA (El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan) — “Everything for the race. Nothing for those outside the race.” (Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada.) — do not differ much from Islamic nationalists’ sentiments in Europe.