2007年VOA标准英语-Immigration, National Identity Take Center Stag

By Anita Elash
Paris
18 April 2007

In France, questions about immigration and national identity have taken center stage in the campaign leading up to this weekend's first round of voting for president. The debate started when conservative candidate and former Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said he would set up a new ministry¹ of immigration and national identity. Socialist² party candidate Segolene Royal followed up with her own thoughts on how to promote French pride. Anita Elash reports for VOA from Paris.

Nicolas Sarkozy, 17 Apr 2007

The leading candidates in France's presidential campaign have had a hard time coming up with an issue that captures voters' attention. But Nicolas Sarkozy, the current frontrunner, succeeded when he went on national television last month and proposed a new ministry of immigration and national identity.

Polls showed that 55 percent of French supported the idea, but media commentators³ condemned⁴ the idea of tying immigration and national identity. They said Sarkozy was invoking⁵ the darkest period of French history, the widespread collaboration⁶ of the French with the Nazis⁷ under the German occupation in World War II.

 

Sarkozy said he wants to make sure that immigrants can speak French and embrace French values like separation of church and state.

"I don't know how we can say we're going to welcome new French citizens without helping⁸ them to integrate," he told reporters. "And to help them integrate, we have to talk about who we are."

Segolene Royal, 18 Apr 2007

Segolene Royal, the Socialist Party candidate and Sarkozy's main opponent, dismissed his proposal as obscene and then proposed her own idea about what it means to be French. She said she wants people to keep a French flag in their cupboard and fly it on Bastille Day, the national holiday. She said people should learn the words to, and sing, the national anthem⁹, "The Marseillaise."

The leader of the far right National Front party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who wants to stop immigration, has been taking advantage of the debate.

"My competitors have put immigration and national identity front and center, even though they have always criticized me and my electors for talking about the same issues," he said in a televised campaign message. "Madame Royal has wrapped herself in the French flag in order to run after Mr. Sarkozy, who is himself, running after me."

Observers say the debate reflects a general discontent in France, and shows how deeply the French are questioning their own identity.

Vincent Michelot teaches political science at the Institute of Political Science in the southeastern city of Lyon. He says the French are unhappy with the economy and with their place in Europe. He says they feel their schools and social security system are being threatened.

"We have right now a crisis over the national compact," Michelot said. "So as a result, the pressures on the national compact have consequences on the definition of French identity. And when there is a crisis in that system, we always turn to a scapegoat¹⁰, and that scapegoat happens to be immigration."

Questions about how to successfully integrate immigrants, and their French-born children, made front page news in November 2005, when youths in the largely North African immigrant suburbs around Paris and other French cities rioted over what they considered police harassment¹¹. The problem was highlighted again a few weeks ago, when about 200 young people rioted at Paris' Gare du Nord train station.

Sarkozy has not said exactly what his new ministry of immigration and national identity would do or how it would help prevent incidents like the ones at the Gare du Nord or in the suburbs. New immigrants, on arrival in France, are asked to sign a contract that requires them to learn French, a measure Sarkozy implemented¹² during his time as interior minister. Other ministries¹³ are equipped to deal with issues such as integration¹⁴ into the workforce¹⁵. But Michelot says that even if the ministry has no new powers, it would be a dangerous symbol.

"Identity should not be defined by government, or by historians," he said. "Nobody has a monopoly on the definition of identity and when there is such a ministry as the ministry of identity, we enter a very slippery slope which might lead us to a definition of what is un-French, and this is very dangerous."

Commentators also say they're alarmed that the issue of national identity and immigration has won so much attention during this campaign. They say it shows that the far right ideas of Le Pen are becoming more acceptable in France.

1 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

2 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

3 commentators   

n.评论员( commentator的名词复数 )；时事评论员；注释者；实况广播员

参考例句：

• Sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 体育解说员翻来覆去说着同样的词语，真叫人腻烦。
• Television sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 电视体育解说员说来说去就是那么几句话，令人厌烦。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

5 invoking   

v.援引( invoke的现在分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求

参考例句：

• You can customise the behavior of the Asynchronous Server and hence re-brand it by defining your own command set for invoking services. 通过定义自己调用服务的命令集，您可以定制自定义异步服务器的行为，通过为调用服务定义自己的命令集从而对它重新标记。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• You can customize the behavior of the Asynchronous Server and hence re-brand it by defining your own command set for invoking services. 通过定义自己调用服务的命令集，您可以定制自定义异步服务器的行为，通过为调用服务定义自己的命令集从而对它重新标记。 来自辞典例句

6 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

7 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

10 scapegoat   

n.替罪的羔羊，替人顶罪者；v.使…成为替罪羊

参考例句：

• He has been made a scapegoat for the company's failures.他成了公司倒闭的替罪羊。
• They ask me to join the party so that I'll be their scapegoat when trouble comes.他们想叫我入伙，出了乱子，好让我替他们垫背。

11 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

12 implemented   

v.实现( implement的过去式和过去分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• This agreement, if not implemented, is a mere scrap of paper. 这个协定如不执行只不过是一纸空文。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The economy is in danger of collapse unless far-reaching reforms are implemented. 如果不实施影响深远的改革，经济就面临崩溃的危险。 来自辞典例句

13 ministries   

（政府的）部( ministry的名词复数 )； 神职； 牧师职位； 神职任期

参考例句：

• Local authorities must refer everything to the central ministries. 地方管理机构应请示中央主管部门。
• The number of Ministries has been pared down by a third. 部委的数量已经减少了1/3。

14 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

15 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。