“France is a country of immigration but it feels ashamed to welcome others. In 30 years we have had 4 presidents 11 prime ministers but on immigration no step forward has been done and the public  opinion  has not proceeded. " said Jean Pierre Denis, director of the French Catholic magazine La Vie, in his speech at the panel on migration at the meeting "The Courage to Hope" organized by the Community of Sant'Egidio.

“A generation - said Denis – has  passed without proposing a model of integration." The French model of assimilation, which is 'all or nothing', did not work, and the discussion has another focus now. "The issue of immigration has changed from social to religious: now we are speaking about Islamophobia, of the veil, of the Islamisation of the suburbs rather than about integration”.