Internationella nyheter och lästips

I Frankrike inleds i dagarna en rad statligt initierade debatter om fransk identitet.

'We must reaffirm the values of national identity and of the pride in being French,' said ... minister of immigration and national identity, Eric Besson.

'I want to launch a major debate over national values and identity,' Besson said, explaining that immigrants should be required to have a better mastery of the French language, of French history and culture. This was 'to reaffirm the values of identity and the pride of being French,' he said.

Besson was clear, saying that the burka is 'inacceptable' in France, but said that a law banning it in public was probably not necessary.

The public debates starting next week, and continuing over several months, will consider proposals such as a ban on women wearing burkas in public, and a requirement that all schoolchildren must sing the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, once a year.

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Mer från Frankrike: Human Rights Watch kritiserar i en rapport Frankrike för att de skickar hem en tredjedel av de ensamkommande barnen utan att pröva deras sak.

In 2008, airport police deported or removed one third of the 1,000 unaccompanied migrant children who arrived at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and who were denied entry into France. France takes the position that those children have not yet entered France and detains them in a "transit zone," where they are denied rights granted to other migrant children on French territory.

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Spaniens socialistiska regering är på väg att anta en ny migrationslag för att begränsa invandringen.

The lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament has approved an immigration reform bill that would crack down on people entering the country illegally and makes it harder for foreigners with residency to bring over their relatives.

The Socialist government, which sponsored the bill, says it has to curb the influx of foreign workers because Spain's economic recession has led to a 17.9 percent unemployment rate.

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Quebeck går långt i sin önskan att behålla den franskaspråkiga dominansen i delstaten. Men nu har högsta domstolen i Kanada beslutat att Quebeck måste sluta med att förhindra invandrares tillgång till undervisning på engelska.

The new ruling did away with Bill 104, seven-year-old legislation that was supported by all political parties in the province. That bill had ended a practice where children from immigrant families got around the French Language Charter.

Quebec law states that children can only attend English public school if a parent was educated in that language in Canada.

But prior to Bill 104, many immigrant families escaped the law. Until then, all it took to make an entire family eligible for English public school was to send one child briefly, for even less than a year, to an English private school.
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Guardian har publicerat en lång artikel om hedersmord i Storbritannien.

The number of young women – and men – being killed or assaulted after supposedly bringing shame on their families keeps on rising. But more than ever before, those who have escaped violence are speaking out to break the code of silence. Old attitudes of accepting the crimes in the name of cultural sensitivity have also disappeared and the police are targeting the abusers.