France criticized for low Arab representation in ‘model immigrant’ list
SMA NEWS – Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron has come under fire for the low representation of Arabs in a new bid to promote role models for immigrant communities.
A list of 318 people published to show the “diversity of France” in street names was posted by Towns Minister Nadia Hai after Macron said names for public spaces such as squares and buildings discriminated against ethnic minorities.
Louis-Georges Tin, a French academic and activist from the Representative Council of Black Associations, said while the list is “a good thing in principle,” it fails to achieve the diversity it intends to promote.
“There really aren’t so many blacks and Arabs on the list,” he said. “It is striking that even when they are trying to promote diversity, they manage to discriminate.”
He added: “If the message is supposed to be that they want to promote diversity, no one is going to understand it.”
Critics have pointed out that many of the list’s figures are white and 79 percent are men. They all count as immigrants to France because they or their parents immigrated to the country, often from other European nations.
Among the ethnic minority figures on the list is Ahmed Boughera El-Ouafi, an Algerian who fought for the French during World War I before winning a gold medal in the marathon at the 1928 Olympics.
