200 questions on national identity

A controversial "Public debate on national identity" launched in early November by the Minster for Immigration and National Identity Eric Besson is to be organized by the prefects of each of France's 100 départements. L'Humanité reports on an official questionnaire, circulated to the prefects, that is supposed to facilitate their consultation of France's citizenry. According to the communist daily, whose headline runs "A practical anti-republican and xenophobic guide" the document "presents immigrants as a potential threat to France." Four of its 16 chapters focus on migrants and feature such lopsided questions as: "How can we prevent illegal immigration, and the attendant evils of the black economy and petty crime?" Also worth noting that the authors of the questionnaire have devoted only one small chapter to the question of European identity.