Losing the Home Field Advantage Not “Only in America”
07/21/2011
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In a recent soccer game at the Rose Bowl, thousands of Mexican-Americans born in the U.S. cheered for Mexico and booed the U.S. team. (And it’s not the first time that’s happened).

This should be a wake-up call to apathetic Americans about current mass immigration and assimilation (or lack thereof).

It’s been said that this happens “Only in America”. Actually, that’s not correct. Similar things have occurred in France.

Here’s how an article on the Brookings website describes one such incident, at a France-Algeria soccer game a decade ago:

In a long-planned public-relations initiative, France faced Algeria in a “friendly” soccer match three weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. The organizers hoped to showcase the success of “republican” integration and the maturity of the Algerian migrant presence in France. Contrary to script, however, some young soccer fans booed the national anthem, threw objects at two government ministers and—once the French lead had reached 4-to-1—ran onto the field, forcing the game’s cancellation. The game’s spectacular ending gave a different impression from that desired by its organizers. It also confirmed the misgivings of those wondering, in the aftermath of September 11, whether Muslims in France could represent a threat to the Republic. “Where are the beurs going?” asked the cover of Le Nouvel Observateur, above photographs of the second- and third-generation immigrant youth invading the soccer field. (”Beurs” is a French slang term for Arabs.)…Islam in France,Brookings, Jonathan Laurence, December 2001

And here’s something else Americans are accustomed to - meddling diplomats:

Reacting to the October 6 soccer match in Le Monde, the Algerian ambassador to France argued that the French state was equally responsible for the alienation of second-generation migrant youth, and called for their prompt social and political incorporation.

And pandering:

President Chirac did not let a month pass after September’s attacks before convening leaders from the French Muslim world at the Elysée, and the new mayor of Paris organized a gala soirée du Ramadan at the Hôtel de Ville this year.

Sowing fear of what might happen if we don’t pander:

The consequences of not integrating Islam into existing state-church structures would likely include an increase in foreign Imams and foreign money, and a decline in transparent and homegrown religious organization.

And calls for making citizens of non-citizens:

Authorities would rightly fear the increasing hostility of a new generation excluded from public institutions; many also feel a duty to extend to them the promise of republican citizenship.

There may be similar examples from other Western countries.

It’s not an “Only in America” thing. It’s an “Only in Rich Western Countries with Imprudent Immigration Policies”. That would include both the U.S. and France.

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