Chroniques patagones

Cinq ans après les attaques terroristes qui frappèrent durement ce pays, les États-Unis continuent d'accueillir des musulmans en grande quantité. Samedi dernier, le New York Times a publié un rapport à ce sujet :

[...] five years later, as the United States wrestles with questions of terrorism, civil liberties and immigration control, Muslims appear to be moving here again in surprising numbers, according to statistics collected by the Department of Homeland Security and the Census Bureau.

Immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia are planting new roots in states from Virginia to Texas to California.

In 2005, more people from Muslim countries became legal permanent United States residents — nearly 96,000 — than in any year in the previous two decades.

More than 40,000 of them were admitted last year, the highest annual number since the terrorist attacks, according to data on 22 countries provided by the Department of Homeland Security.

Many have made the journey unbowed by tales of immigrant hardship, and despite their own opposition to American policy in the Middle East. They come seeking the same promise that has drawn foreigners to the United States for many decades, according to a range of experts and immigrants: economic opportunity and political freedom.

[...]

Muslims have been settling in the United States in significant numbers since the mid-1960’s, after immigration quotas that favored Eastern Europeans were lifted. Spacious mosques opened in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York as a new, highly educated Muslim population took hold.

Over the next three decades, the story of Muslim migration to the United States was marked by growth and prosperity. A larger percentage of immigrants from Muslim countries have graduate degrees than other American residents, and their average salary is about 20 percent higher, according to census data.

Immédiatement, on se pose une question. Quelle aurait été la réaction d'autres pays face à la même situation. On peut fortement douter qu'une autre société, après avoir été attaquée par des fanatiques religieux, ouvre ainsi les bras à des personnes - qui pour leur grand malheur - sont vite assimilées aux responsables de cette tragédie. Finalement les attentats terroristes du 11 septembre 2001 renferment une bonne part de fierté et d'optimisme : les États-Unis continuent d'être « the land of opportunity » pour des millions de gens à travers le monde, indépendamment de leur origine.