A Comparative Analysis of How Britain, France, and Germany Approach Racial Problems

Savannah Brady

Britain, France, and Germany share many similarities in problems, but they also differ in

their approaches to a topic/problem. When it comes to racial problems in these countries, Britain

has an integrationist approach, whereas France has a assimilationist approach, and Germany has

a exclusionist approach. In my comparative analysis I will compare and contrast these three

approaches by showing reasons for why each country has adopted these different approaches. I

will then provide an argument for why one country's approach is better than the others.

In this analysis I will be using comparative technique MSSD (Most Similar Systems

Designs). Britain, France, and Germany have closely related institutions with only a few

similarities. The independent variable that I analyzed is the political institutions between these

three countries. The dependent variable is the way these three countries are dealing with the

crisis of race. As talked about above, these countries have different approaches to what defines

their help in the country's racial problems.

During the periods of 2011-2016, Britain's attitudes, at first, were approving of the

Islamic religion. They thought that maybe the culture wasn’t as bad. All of that changed in 2017.

Multiple terror attacks in the UK changed the perceptions of Islam in a negative light. In the

2017 general election, 49% who voted Conservative and only 22% of Labors agreed that Islam

was generally a threat to British living (2019). In the UK, a third (35%) of the population believe

that the Islamic religion is a threat to the British way of life (2019). This prejudice isn’t new.
 The group HOPE Not Hate was founded in 2004 to help end political hate (About us).

This group is heavily involved with trying to stop the hate towards the Islam comunity and other

comunities alike. Members of this group are usually at protests to help stop the negitive light

Islam gets.

You would think that with the help of HOPE Not Hate would have some impact on the

Islamophobia in the UK, but sadly the anti-Muslim prejudice remanis a huge problem. In 2011,

Baroness Warsi declared that Isamophobia isn't in Britain anymore (Carter, 2019). According to

Rosie Carter, “people continue to see Muslims distinctly differently from other religious groups”.

18% of the public holdings have extremely negative views of Muslims still.

These prejudices don’t just come from predominantly Conserative people, you can find

anti-Muslism prejudice among people who have liberal and tolerant attitudes (Carter, 2019).

People with liberal views are more likely to justify their fears that Islam posese a threat to Britian

becasue the belief that Islam promotes dicrimanation towards women and girls.

Britain's approach to racism is through integrationism. Integrationism means a person

who believes in, supports, or works for social integration. But there are issues to this approach.

Integration which only targets ‘problem minorities’ promotes division over cohesion (Hom).

Integration should involve the community as a whole. Another issue is that some anti-

discrimination laws don’t always extend to minorites. Anti-discrimination law will need to bring

the needs of minorities into mainstream society and instil a duty on public authorities to promote

equality and cohesion (Home).

One way the integration is working is that there are strategies for combating specific

racism, like antisemitism or islamophobia, and are effective by working collaboratively and

sharing best practice (Home).

 France’s approach to the Islam racism is assimilationist. Assimilationist is defined as a

person who advocates or participates in racial or cultural integration. France has had a long

standing tradition of assimilation but voices on the political spectrum had been calling for stricter

immigration controls (Thomas Lacroix Directeur adjoint de Migrinter, 2020). This issue for

assimilation started in the 19th century. It wasn’t because of migrants but because of issues

having to do with Jews in French society.

In French society now, there are still issues for if assimilation should still be part of

France’s long standing tradition. The President doesn’t particularly enjoy the idea of assimilation

or Muslims in France. Thomas Lacroix French and Mulisms living in France want to “redefine

what it is to be Muslim in French society... that will escape from the supposed tradition of

‘assimilation’”.

The President of France has announced new measures recently to address what he is

calling “Islamist separtism” (2020). Some of these include: restrictions on home-schooling and

harsher punishments for those who disrespect religious grounds. He wants to give all children a

national identification number (INE). This identification number would make sure that children

are attending school. And if a parent breaks the law could face up to six months in jail as well as

large fines. Macron also wants to put a ban on sharing the personal information of a person in a

way that allows them to be located by people who want to harm them (2020).

In 2020 the President of France claimed that Islam “is in crisis all over the world” and

didn’t partically want to help the comunity (Hossam Shaker, 2020). Macron has continually been

insensitive by singling out Islam in the discourse around religious fundamentalism and has been

linking the religion to terrorism and extremism.

 In France there are hateful campaigns that specifically target Islam and are being justified

under the pretext of freedom of expression. But that same freedom gets ignored when Muslims

protest against their extremists (Hossam Shaker, 2020).

The French government’s justification of anti-Islam rhetoric under the pretence of free

expression is accompanied by widespread French cooperation with Arab regimes that suppress

the basic rights of their citizens.

Germany has a significant Muslim population. Politicians, in and out of Germany,

acknowledge that Germany is a country of immigration that has a large group of Muslims

(2016). In 2018, Muslims made up 10% of the population whereas Catholics and Protestants

made up 25%. With the help of the Muslim refugees, the German population is being

maintained. In some German towns, between the years 2012-2019 the number of foreigners

increased by 30-40% (Chmielewski, 2020).

The influx of German population is because of Chancellor Angela Merkel. She opened

the country to immigration when she accepted millions of Muslim migrants. She would go on to

say “Wir schaffen das” (we can do this) and it became one of Berlin’s most important decisions

since 1945 (Chmielewski, 2020).

Between the years 2015-2019, Germany had 1.8 million refugees apply for asylum. They

got border crossing under control and Germany is still one of the largest countries for controlled

migration. In 2020, the German government passed an upper limit on annual migrant quotas

(Chmielewski, 2020). They allowed 180,000 to 220,000 refugees into the country.

Germany’s approach to immigration is mostly exclusionist. Exclusionist means one who

would exclude another from some right or privilege. Because Germany has been facing a
working crisis the German government has introduced new legislation that will allow foreigners

with certain skills to apply for work permits and move to Germany using legal channels

(Sanderson, 2020). This would be called the Skilled Immigration Act and came into effect March

1, 2020. In the future, this law will be easier for skilled workers with vocational, non-academic

training from non-EU countries to migrate to Germany in order to work (Sanderson, 2020).

These three countries are similar with their institutions, but when it comes to immigration

policies they are completely different. Germany is more open to the idea of welcoming

immigration with open arms, whereas France doesn’t want anything to do with immigration.

That the more immigration means more social issues that are going to have to find solutions for.

Britain is in between these two countries. While they welcome immigration, they run into social

issues in government systems.

In conclusion, Britain, France, and Germany share many similarities in problems, but

they also differ in their approaches to a topic/problem. Britain faces social issues with the Islamic

community, especially when that community holds a good number of the population. Brits think

that Muslims are a threat to their way of living and are prejudiced against them. France has a lot

of systemic issues. The government doesn’t want Muslims in the country, but is still willing to

work with them. Germany needs the population and the workforce that immigrants can bring to

the country. They are trying their best to make their countries better and help these immigrants

get jobs.
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