Toronto Star - Europe casts wary eye on France

TheStar.com - Europe casts wary eye on France: "Europe casts wary eye on France
Nov. 18, 2005. 01:00 AM
FRIDA GHITIS


The Paris fires are turning to white smoke, doused by emergency laws but giving off enough steam to keep nerves on edge and still capable of flaring again to those furious yellow flames that shot fear through Europe's heart. Still, after weeks of rioting, many in France, including President Jacques Chirac, now recognize that much explosive fuel remains.
France and the rest of Europe face a problem that politicians will not simply solve with emergency laws and hordes of tough cops.
For a while, clever European politicians thought they had found an elegant way to dodge the continent's long-running dilemma of a shrinking 'white' population, a need for more young workers, and a not-so-secret wish to keep away immigrants from non-white countries.
The plan was to enlarge the European Union. By opening Western Europe to the less prosperous resident of the old Eastern Bloc, the new workers would flood in, blonde and blue-eyed, from countries like Poland and Hungary.
Although millions of easterners are coming, economic growth back home is limiting the exodus. Besides, there is another detail: Millions of Europeans are the children and grandchildren of immigrants. Most of the rioters may have dark skin and non-European sounding names, but they are European-born. Europe is their home and they're not going anywhere.
When the Paris suburbs exploded, Europe looked on with the creeping dread of recognition. A frightened consensus emerged that it is probably just a matter of time before the children of immigrants from the Middle East and Africa � Europe's new underclass � bring m"