Friday, March 31, 2006

What Lies beyond Damned Lies?

Statistics......

Here and here.

It is very hard to get Euros to give statistics which relate unemployment rates to subgoups, ethnic or religious. Now Steyn has written that in France, for muslim "youth", the unemployment rate is about 50%. What does he mean by "youth" exactly? Particularly as he uses the word rhetorically, not descriptively. Perhaps Pepe' Le Pew has access to some reliable government info we Yanks do not have?
For Holland, the mondediplo site has an article stating a figure just over 10% for the unemployment rate of muslims in Holland. That is presumably overall, and presumably "youth" would have a higher rate? Have not yet been able to get any official government info on England, either, for this Islam-unemployment relation. Various sites, kufr and islamic, say it is "high" or comparitively "higher", but do not quantify. A few articles stated figures that ranged from 15% to 18% for unemployment among "young muslim men" in England. None gave link to an official source.
By the way, a comment throughout, for all three nations, is that relatively few muslim women seek jobs, compared to those outside of the ummah. I have no idea if this decision to not work is counted in unemployment rates. Another comment was that the more believing the muslim population the greater its SELF-IMPOSED isolation from the surrounding nation. The more integrated muslims were, the far greater likelihood that they were without belief [self-described to interviewers, as well as using indices such as mosque attendance, regular observance of halal strictures, etc...]
Anyway, looking through this glass darkly, it does seem that unemployment among "younger" French muslim men is substantially higher than in Holland or England. Yet the fundamental problems as to how to build common citizenship between Believer and Kufr are equally vexing. Whatever differences do exist in tone seem to have more to do with relative size of the muslim population, not employment rates. So, for example, Luton is worse than London, Marseille more than Lille, Amsterdam more than Eindhoven.
Of course, how this relates to Germany, where employment among muslims is relatively high, the Balkans, where divisions are now bloody historical,etc... I dunna know.
What about Italy, JJ? Are these muslims who would Defenestrate Fallaci and chop off Rahman's noggin tending to be unemployed??

1 comment:

Mr roT said...

You ask about Italy. I think Italy is as always very complicated and worse, inhomogeneous. Luigi Barzini quoted a newspaper reporter in the '60s saying "In Moscow one knows nothing but understands everything. In Rome one knows everything and understands nothing." If you were to visit for any length of time you would understand how this can be.

I think the situation in the Netherlands and France is very different than from all of Italy, but for different reasons depending on where you are.

First, France and the Neths had colonies so there is some political mileage that can be got from yelling "Imperialist oppressor" there that in Italy makes no sense. Not that that will stop them, but you see what I mean.

Second, France and Neth have well-organized governments and this includes the handout offices for do-nothings.

In Italy, it takes months for a citizen with connections to get anything accomplished if it involves a government office.

Think New Orleans cubed.

In northern Italy, there has been a serious influx of foreigners from N Africa because there is a serious labor shortage there. Coincidentally, the North is mountainous and people from rough country are usually rough themselves. Therefore there is a lot of overt racism around.

If in France the papers and the cops try to keep a lid on giving the ethnicity of thieves, muggers, ... in Italy, they take delight in it and so ruffians go around and beat up outsiders. Lately there has been a rash of robberies that end in the jeweler shooting the Moroccan in the back as he flees the robbery.

Tragic, huh?

In the South, there is a lot of unemployment and so with an impossible welfare state, foreigners stay away.

This rarity of foreigners in the South of course makes for serious episodes of public racism when, say, black football players show up there.

These make the news and probably discourage any immigration to the South also.

Perhaps it's my tendency toward ouzification that clouds my vision here, but I think that though there is a problem with violent barbaric immigrants in Italy, it is not as bad as in well-organized bien-pensant countries.

If the State doesn't serve as a moderator in discussions between groups, then natural tension is released naturally.

It might turn out that an incompetent government is a blessing.

This is an idea of Huntington's actually, misapplied. He used the idea that corruption is an aid to the early development of a country. Think Carnegie and Frick.