France, a welcoming country

This book is intended as a reflection on today's France, which remains a welcoming country, drawing strength from its multiculturalism and freedom of expression. It is against a backdrop of mass unemployment, the erosion of educational values and the loss of moral compass that I chose to write this book. The influx of refugees arriving on European shores raises further questions about the difficulty France faces in being a welcoming land for people fleeing war from Syria, Sudan and elsewhere. The journey of migration is complex, whether chosen or forced. It often involves leaving behind a part of one's life, one's family, one's loved ones, and sometimes even one's very soul. What does our France have to offer? I recall the departure for France of an 11-year-old boy with his two sisters, whom his mother put in a taxi to reach the airport for a flight to Paris. His grandmother Jeanne, who had raised him, was there that day; she whispered a few words of advice through the car window, as the endless journey would shape the course of his life: "Follow the path of education..." ...