Security Measure or Effort to "Frenchify" France?

How anomalous! Here’s a tactic that the United States actually shouldn’t borrow from France: pushing out minorities in crime-ridden areas.

By the end of the month, France expects that the deportation of 700 members of the Roma Gypsy minority to Romania and Bulgaria will be completed. The deportation, according to Time magazine, is part of a controversial effort to crackdown on communities officials hold responsible for criminal activity.

Yet the targeting of the Roma population in particular has been castigated by opposing politicians, who claim the motivation behind the expulsion goes beyond “cleaning up” crime-ridden areas. The opposition sees this “as a cynical move by the conservative government of President Nicolas Sarkozy to seduce hard-right voters in the long march toward the President’s 2012 re-election bid,” according to Time.

In addition, Romanian and European Union officials assert this political move is xenophobic (no, really?) and infringing on the rights of fellow E.U. citizens—Romania has been an E.U. member since 2007. Human-rights organizations condemn the operation as “abusive and racist,” claiming the Roma Gypsy population is too often Europe’s “scapegoat.”

The fact remains that not every Roma is to blame for the crime in the area, just like how every French person is not automatically blameless. Observers point out that an itinerant people involved in violence in the Saint-Aignan region weren’t actually Roma, but traveling communities composed of mainly French citizens.

It’s also worth noting that last year alone, around 10,000 Roma (two-thirds of their estimated population in France) were deported, with French taxpayer money in their pockets; most returned only weeks later.

Expulsions have never worked for France in the past, and politicians don’t expect they will decrease violence now: “Meaning, there’s nothing new to the current French expulsion of Roma except shouting—and a crass calculation to win votes through xenophobia,” according to Time.

What a completely foreign (pun-intended) concept to Americans, who have no unified race, ethnicity, religion, or background. We’re only bound by a piece of paper—the constitution, which is also sometimes what pulls us apart during times of political tension and uproar. But, still. Win votes through xenophobia? That wouldn’t fly here.

When the expulsion operation doesn’t decrease violence, hopefully it will still decrease something: espousers of xenophobic tactics.