Laicidade e exclusão : o fracasso do modelo francês de integração para muçulmanos e a criminalização do véu islâmico

Abstract

France, through restrictive migration policies and laws that limit full citizenship for descendants of immigrants, combined with bans on the Islamic veil in public spaces, creates a contradictory scenario: in the name of protecting republican values, it ends up weakening the integration of its Muslim population, especially women. This study examines how these measures—from the Pasqua (1986) and Méhaignerie (1993) Laws, which complicated naturalization, to the 2004 (religious symbols in schools) and 2010 (full-face veil in public spaces) Laws—impact the social participation of French Muslims. The research shows that, although justified by secularism and national security discourse, these policies reinforce marginalization: IFOP (2023) data reveals that 77% of Muslims in the country perceive the application of secularism as discriminatory, while government reports indicate that veiled women are 2.5 times less likely to be hired (Human Rights Watch, 2014; ENANPUR, 18th, 2019). By linking these restrictions to France’s colonial history and current identity tensions, the study argues that the forced assimilation-based integration model has been counterproductive, fostering exclusion rather than social cohesion.