This expression is greatly known. With a notable come back, "Republican values" seem to be the perfect remedy against all society malfunctions. Nonetheless, we have to keep in mind it is through actions and not only words Republican values are represented. And then, on this field, we can only observe the work involved is significant.

Opening arms to those who survive and flee to escape the war is as hard as it was before. Indeed, it was the same when Spanish republicans tried to leave their country and thought finding a safe place here, in the country of "Human rights". At a time when the principle of equal opportunities is only a project, it seems the "Republican meritocracy", inherited from the IIIrd Republic, is not a mean of justifying the domination of elites anymore. In addition, if the point is to encourage the emancipation for individuals, then leaving working people in the economic jungle would make no sense, ideologically but also historically. And there is no need to talk about the relative conception of secularism; the founders of the "split" of 1905 (law separating Church and State) must be turning in their grave.

Actually, these well-known "Republican values" are, above all, in fighting for freedom for all and each and against all forms of oppressions - political, cultural, social , economical and/or religious. Symbols get a central place here but they can't be self-sufficient at the risk of discrediting indistinctly all the edifice.

   QGB

TO GO FURTHER:

- BAUBEROT Jean, Les sept laïcités françaises : le modèle français de laïcité n’existe pas, Pars, Editions de la Maison des sciences de l’Homme, 2015, 175 p.

- DUBET François, DURU-BELLAT Marie, VERETOUT Antoine, Les sociétés et leur école. Emprise du diplôme et cohésion sociale, Paris, Seuil, 2015, 260 p.

- DIDRY Claude, L’institution du travail : Droit et salariat dans l’histoire, Paris, La Dispute, 2016, 244 p.

- KROP Jérôme, La méritocratie républicaine. Elitisme et scolarisation de masse sous la IIIe République, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2014, 176 p.

- NICOLET Claude, L’idée républicaine en France (1789-1924), Paris, Gallimard, 1994 [1982], 528 p.

- ORY Pascal (dir.), Dictionnaire des étrangers qui ont fait la France, Paris, Robert Laffont, 2013, 953 p.

- Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration : http://www.histoire-immigration.fr/