Three years of E. Macron’s presidency: French multiculturalism at secondary school

Abstract

The author considers France’s politics in the field of integration of child migrants into the system of secondary school education during the first three years of E. Macron’s presidency (2017 - 2020). The author gives special attention to the measures against the proliferation of religious radicalism among young people. The author proves that, unlike his predecessors whose steps were limited to merely counter-terrorist measures, Macron focuses on the individual approach to each detected radicalism case or behavior and on taking particular steps aimed at the prevention, monitoring and combating such cases. Generally speaking, Macron pursues the mainstream right policy on the issues of integration of representatives of religious and national minorities into the school education system. The steps taken by him, such as compulsory kindergarten attendance since the age of three, the reduction of the number of pupils at elementary school rooms, and the closing of the ELCO program, should lead to the improvement of the situation and can promote the Republic return to the lost territories in the suburbs of large cities. At the same time, the President of France avoids radical measures (e.g. the Arab language remains one of foreign languages studied at school) which could “stigmatize” the Musliim community of France.