They are not Latinos like us, but they are the children of immigrants like many of us. They are the young people in France setting cars ablaze. They have moved from targeting just their own neighborhoods, their versions of ghettos and projects, and now are in the tourist areas and the “white” areas. That is making the government crack down and the world take notice.

So why should Latinos care that unemployment is higher among the immigrant community in France than anywhere else in that country? Why should we care that the youth are raging in the streets because there is no place else for them to be? Author Ana Castillo wrote two days ago in her blog about a time when she went to France and she was stopped by security and mistaken for the housekeeper in the home of her host. She was a Mexican here in the United States. In France she was viewed as a possible Algerian, a non-white person, a person who came to the country to work the jobs that White French people would not do. Sound familiar? It is the same story for immigrants all over the world. What is happening in France is what happens when the children of immigrants are not given the same space and access as others, when despite being born in a country they are treated like outsiders still. France’s story is our own and should serve as a warning of what happens when you allow a third world within a first world.

Via / Ana Castillo.com