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cultivation of Hispanic voters by George W. Bush (in 2000 and 2004) and by Barack Obama in 2008 are just two examples of how politicians regard at least one component of the immigrant vote as key to electoral success. That is clearly not yet the case in Europe, where those same communities are often the targets for polemics rather than for co-optation. Yet both approaches are symptomatic of the problematic ways in which immigrants and their children are regarded and “processed” in the current environment—as a narrow resource or a target but not as inherent participants in the broader process. Furthermore, neither approach is constructive in terms of the populations upon which this study predominantly focuses—Arabs and Muslims. In addition to the political representation of ethnic diversity, it is equally important to encourage the active civic involvement of immigrants, independent from their ethnic communities. Migrant claims are admittedly diverse, from the “right to be different” (which often leads to various forms of affirmative action or special group rights) to “equal participation” (which implies rights that are not anchored to ethno-religious identities but may be individual in character). Civic integration should therefore address two sorts of situations. The first is of those immigrants who claim recognition on the grounds of their ethnic identity. The second is fueled by the resentment of those—mainly members of the second or third generation of migrants—who feel “trapped” in terms of their ethnic identity, people whose primary goal is to achieve sociopolitical “normality.” As an illustration of the latter case, young Muslim rioters during the French civil unrest in 2005 did not ask for Islamic-based rights. Rather, they demanded the right to be considered “normal” citizens in asking for equal opportunities and treatment under the law. Third, while historic waves of immigration have generated differing conundrums in America and Europe, the arrival of successive waves of varied Arabs and Muslims has not been followed by their systematic integration, as was historically the case with other immigrant groups. Indeed, the advent of new security measures in the aftermath of 9/11 has not only served to thwart any momentum toward integration but, as Chebel d’Appollonia points out, it has also created a new security threat: alienating Arab and Muslim youth who form the vanguard of a potential “enemy within.” Tirman’s chapter reinforces this point in the context of the United States. The paradox is evident: that a series of policies purportedly designed to ensure Americans’ safety (or at the very least make Americans feel safer) have in fact achieved the opposite. Processes of surveillance and (in some notable cases) harassment and humiliation, coupled with sustained geopolitical strife, have served to magnify a “clash of perceptions” in which a tiny minority of potential terrorists are (euphemistically) buttressed in their views by a small minority of sympathizers. Moderate positions are, predictably, the casual victims of this clash of perceptions in which the preferred approach of the state is the application of instruments of national security at a cost to the use of instruments associated with education, social welfare, and means of civic, economic, and political incorporation. CONCLUSION 279 Most Arab and Muslim communities lack suitable modes of democratic representation . They are underrepresented as both institutional groups and as voters . In contrast, they are generally overrepresented in terms of unemployment (even in the United States when African American Muslims and not just American Arabs are included). So while the evidence presented in this volume points out, at length, that poverty is not the only source of discontent and alienation among Arab and Muslim youth, it clearly supports the proposition that a broad set of policies aimed at civic, economic, and political integration can best complement a series of (ideally, less aggressive) traditional security measures. From urban riots in the suburbs of Paris to foiled bombing plots in U.S. prisons, a robust process designed to address the causes of alienation may best serve to shrink the potential pool of terrorists along with their minority of supporters. Fourth, while fashionable debates regarding cosmopolitanism and transnational identity endure among academics, focused on questions of citizenship, the question of religion and patriotism is especially acute in (often polemical) discussions regarding Arabs and Muslims. American immigrants and their descendents have historically reveled in dual identities, reflective of their country of origin, without their patriotism being questioned—with the notable exception of the case of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II...

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