Social situation in the French suburbs

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Social situation in the suburbs
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2005 French
civil unrest

The social situation in the French suburbs, called banlieues, is a complex topic. This situation leads to civil unrest from time to time, and came to world attention with the civil unrest in autumn 2005. Banlieue, which is the French for suburbs, does not necessarily have an implication of disenfranchisement. Indeed, there exist very wealthy suburbs; for instance, Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, is the wealthiest commune of France, and Versailles is also a very wealthy, not to say aristocratic, suburb. However, in recent years, the term banlieues has been used as a euphemism to mean the difficult suburbs — those with high unemployment, high criminality rate, and a high proportion of population of foreign origin.

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[edit] Historical context

[edit] The rebuilding of France after World War II

Following World War II and the bombings which caused very important destructions, for example in Le Havre, an industrial port in the North, France had to rebuild everything. During the 1950s, a housing shortage led to the creation of shantytowns (bidonvilles). Beside, confronted to illegal squatting due to the shortage of lodging, a law allowing public requisitions of empty flats and buildings was voted. The winter of 1955 became famous with the Abbé Pierre's call in favor of homeless people. The Fourth Republic (1947-58) and then Charles de Gaulle's government in the beginning of the Fifth Republic answered this situation by engaging in the construction of huge housing projects, including the famous villes nouvelles ("New town", such as Sarcelles, Cergy-Pontoise, Marne-la-Vallée, Sénart, Évry Ville Nouvelle, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, etc.), which was financed in part by the Marshall Plan, and organized through Economic Plans fixing industrial objectives to meet (Dirigisme). The villes nouvelles owed a lot to Le Corbusier's architectural theories, which had been decried before the war.

During the Trente Glorieuses, a period of economic growth which lasted until the 1973 oil crisis, and was accompanied by the baby boom, the French state and industrials encouraged immigration of young workers from the colonies, mostly from the Maghreb, to help in the rebuilding.

At the end of the Algerian War of Independence in 1962, 900,000 pieds-noirs (the European colons in Algeria) were repatriated to France, while most of the 91,000 harkis (native Algerians who fought with the French army during the war) also fled to France[citation needed] . The latter were put in internment camps, while the pieds-noirs settled mainly in the South of France (Marseilles, Nice and Montpellier, a city where the population increased by 40% between 1960 and 1970[citation needed], etc.). Harkis were not officially given permission to migrate, but some French military officers helped facilitate their migration to France in order to save them from wide-spread reprisals that were expected if they remained in Algeria. After being freed from the internment camps, a lot of the harkis went on to live as other Algerian and Maghrebin immigrants in shanty-towns. Thus, in 1963 in metropolitan France, 43% of the French Algerians lived in shanty towns [1]. Azouz Begag, Delegate Minister for Equal Opportunities in the government of current Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin (UMP), has written an autobiographic novel, Le Gone du Chaâba, describing his experience living in a bidonville in the outskirts of Lyon.

[edit] Model of urban development

The housing crisis led to the building of apartment blocks, or flats, which were at first inhabited by the middle class. As the housing situation improved, the middle class moved to better houses and the immigrants moved from the shantytowns to the blocks. The blocks are termed "HLM" — habitation à loyer modéré ("moderated rent flats"), and districts of blocks are termed cités (housing estates). A popular urban planning concept at this time, popularized by Le Corbusier, a Swiss architect, was to separate areas of towns or cities according to several functions: living center (blocks), commercial center and working center, with the centers being connected by buses. This led to the isolation of the living centers, with two consequences:

  • there is no activity at night and on Sunday, aggravated by the fact that buses to the center of town are scarce;
  • when unemployment started to rise in the late 1970s, the children did not see anybody working, as the working center was far away; in the 1990s, a lot of school-age children never saw their parents going to work, and never saw anyone working.

This model became increasingly contested; in the 1990s there have been a number of well-publicized destruction of "bars" and other large-scale housing facilities in "inhumane" areas.

Moreover, some towns refused to build social buildings, and poor people were further concentrated in certain towns which placed no or few restrictions on the construction of social housing. A typical example is Paris: when old buildings were destroyed, only office and high rent buildings were built in their place, and the poor were "pushed" to the North suburbs (mainly Seine-Saint-Denis). In The Global City (2001), Saskia Sassen has analyzed the relationship between a new economy model and the shape of modern cities. The public services offered (number of police officers, post offices, etc.) did not follow the tremendous increase of the population in these areas. A lot of people consider this "ghettoisation".

The 13 December 2000 "SRU law" (loi de solidarité et renouvellement urbain, i.e. "solidarity and urban renewal act"), adopted under a left-wing majority, imposed that communes should have at least 20% of their housing capacity as social housing; right-wing locally elected officials were generally against this law. This law seeks to remedy a situation whereby certain communes have a large share of social housing, thus a poor, unemployed population, while some others only have minimal quantities of social housing. A typical example of the latter category is the wealthy Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine (current right-wing French Presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy was mayor here 1983-2002): it has less than 2.5% of social housing. After the riots, the executive announced that it would enforce the law more strictly, although it would accommodate local circumstances such as the absence of land on which social housing could be built.

[edit] Social context

[edit] Confrontation of cultures

The culture shock was not so problematic for the first immigrants[citation needed]: their roots were clearly in their originating country, and they were in France to work and send money to their family. Their main concern was to stay discreet.

But the children of immigrants are torn between the culture of their parents (with an idealised view of their originating country), and the culture they have always known, French culture. The children of North African immigrants call themselves "beur", which is verlan (French slang) for "arabe", although a lot of them are Berber and not Arab.

A typical illustration of this is the use by the French media of the words "second-generation immigrants" (immigrés de deuxième génération, opposed to "just arrived", primo-arrivants). If a child is born in France, he is not an immigrant, so the expression "second-generation immigrants" is a misnomer. According to the anti-racist associations, such as SOS Racisme or other important NGOs helping immigrants (CIMADE, etc.), this antinomy reflects the ambiguity of the administration, who considers these people as French and as a foreigner at the same time. Children of immigrants also complain about the use of the term "integration" (intégration): the integration in the society (i.e. the acceptance of the laws and common references, which does not mean to make a surrender of the original culture and tradition) is a necessity for a foreigner; but someone who is born in the country, always lived there, went to school, etc. should not be asked to integrate the society, he or she is already part of it.

Another phenomenon plays a major role: the confidence in the neighbourhood. In the traditional village organisation, in Africa but also in France, everybody knows everyone else; when a child misbehaves, he may be corrected by any adult. An old African saying that expresses this idealized condition is "It takes a village to raise a child". In this social modality, the children can be let outside; they are never alone and are always watched by someone. But in a block, there are insufficient adults to watch the children due to the separation of living and working space; adults can no longer realistically take a few moments from work to discipline a misbehaving child or provide moral instruction. Additionally, the French who first inhabited these blocks had already lost the tradition of communal childrearing and did not correct the neighborhood youth, claiming it was their parents' responsibility. Children were thus left on their own.

Finally, France is still uneasy about its colonial past; this attitude is symbolized by the lack of attention around the Paris massacre of 1961. The February 23, 2005 law on colonialism, voted by the UMP conservative majority, stating that the "positive consequences" of colonization must be taught to students, created a wide uproar, including among many university teachers outraged by what they have called a mark of "historical revisionism", and an infringement on the legal principle of academic freedom.

[edit] Hidden racism

Children of immigrants claim that they frequently encounter economic segregation or racism: they have problems getting a job, or renting a flat, or even getting into a nightclub, just because of their name or the color of their skin, although such discrimination is officially illegal. The association SOS Racisme, close to the French Socialist Party, has claimed to have found experimental proof of such racism:

  • they responded to job offers with exactly the same CV, just changing the name and address, to the same companies; CVs with a African names got far fewer positive answers than CVs with a typical French name;
  • they filmed the entrance of the nightclubs and witnessed discrimination
  • they found widespread use of markings such as "BBR" (Bleu Blanc Rouge or Blue White Red, meaning real French/white) and "NBBR" (Non Bleu Blanc Rouge or Not Blue White Red, meaning not French/white) indicating race in employers' databases (Bleu Blanc Rouge is in reference to the colours of the French flag.)
  • they found that discrimination is more widespread for those with college degrees than for those without
  • they found that the French laws which make discrimination in employment illegal are rarely enforced and that when they are enforced, very little punishment is given.

The politically correct term for this situation is "visible minority" (minorité visible), due to the fact that the segregation applies to any visible feature (color of skin, dress, name) and is not related to the ethnic group itself.

In 2005, the unemployment in the cités reached 20%, whereas the national average is 10% [1]; in some quarters, it can reach 40%. Part of the problem is that the general level of education in these areas is well below the national average, which, in a context where it is difficult to find jobs requiring little or no qualifications, is bound to generate high unemployment. According to the BBC, the unemployment rate for university graduates of French origin is 5%; this can be compared to the unemployment rate of 26.5% for university graduates of North African origin. However, the BBC study does not specify whether the people of North African statistically attend the same university curricula as the average French population; it is well-known that some French higher education curricula do not offer good job prospects afterwards, and a "graduate" can be someone with a DEUG (a diploma issued after just two years of University education). Employment prospects in France for someone with only a DEUG are slim. According to the BBC, the inability of educated people who happen to be nonwhite to obtain employment and the connection to documented racism have left many feeling that they face dim prospects regardless of their actions. [2]

French law restricts the access to most civil service jobs (fonction publique) to people having European Union citizenship, though there exist exceptions to this: some highly qualified positions (e.g. public research and higher education) are open regardless of citizenship, while some positions (e.g. defense and law enforcement) are open only to French citizens. Some sensitive positions (defense, nuclear industry…) may be difficult to obtain for people with close ties to "problem countries". This is in line with a common practice around the world; for instance, in the United States the security clearances needed for "sensitive positions" are almost impossible to obtain for foreigners or people with connections to "problem areas". Finally, not all public jobs fall into the civil service, and restrictions generally do not apply to non-civil service public positions.

Residents of the banlieues frequently complain about racial profiling by the police ("face features offense", délit de faciès). "Identity Controls" — unannounced places where police demand identity papers from whomever they choose are extremely unpopular and seen as unbefitting a free society. Witnesses to these identity controls confirm that only nonwhites are commonly asked for their papers. The use of these identity controls is a major factor in the widespread distrust of police in the 'banlieue's. [3] [4] [5]

The perception that French police are effectively immune to the law, especially with regard to offenses committed against nonwhites, has also helped to fuel anger against them in the banlieue. The French newspaper Le Monde writes (Le Monde, "La France des 'bavures'", 18 April 2000) "Justice is at a special tariff for police officers: they are never seriously punished." Cases such as one in which a seven month suspended sentence was given to two police officers for manslaughter by asphyxiation against a black man have contributed to the belief that the police are unaccountable to the citizens who employ them. In April of 2005, Amnesty International released a report which claims that the French judicial system tacitly supports racially motivated violence by police. [6] [7] [8]

In contrast, some in the right and especially the far-right, such as Jean-Marie Le Pen, claim that youth from the banlieues enjoy de facto immunity from prosecution. They claim that the police and the prosecution are ordered by the government to be lenient, so as not to attract the wrath of left-wing and pro-immigration organisations. [9]

[edit] Rise of criminality

The underground activity started to rise, with activity in the drug trade and the fencing of stolen goods. Streets and building entrances are often controlled by gangs. However, this criminal activity only rarely leads to murder (there are only about 400 homicides every year in France, 0.7 for 100,000 inhabitants, and they are mainly domestic violence related), and the relatively small number of people affected were not given much attention (they do not vote, were lower-income, and are not politically organised), so the situation was seen as tolerable until the 1980s.

In the 1980s and 1990s, with the perceived rise of petty criminality, the topic became a sore point of French politics. Jean-Marie Le Pen, generally considered to be far right, has long denounce the "laxism" of authorities and proposed tougher law enforcement policies, more in line with the current practices of e.g. the United States (longer sentences, expulsion of foreign criminals etc.). Other right-wing politicians, such as Charles Pasqua, have similar, though less far-reaching, proposals. The 2002 presidential election was largely waged on the topic of violent and nonviolent petty delinquency. Finally, in 2005, Interior Minister and head of the UMP party Nicolas Sarkozy announced tougher measures. In contrast, left-wing parties such as the French Socialist Party and the French Communist Party have long denounced such measures are demagogue and counter-productive.

An official parliamentary report on "prevention of criminality", commanded by then Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin (UMP), and made by MP Jacques-Alain Bénisti, claimed that "Multilingualism (bilinguisme) was a factor of criminality." (sic [2]). Following outcries from many NGOs and left-wing sectors, the definitive version of the Bénisti report finally made of multilingualism an asset instead of a default [3].

[edit] Recent laws

After 1982, immigration policies have become stricter with each new interior policy minister. This contributed to the apparent surge of illegal immigration and illegal immigrants living in France.

The main problem is the so-called "sans papiers" ("without papers"), who lived and worked legally for a long time in France but who were suddenly considered as illegal immigrants because of the change in the law. They fear encounters with the police as they can be sent back to their countries of origin, with few opportunities to appeal the decision or delay deportation. Several protests from this population were organised during the 1990's. All this contributed to a sense of despair and lawlessness.

Some also point out the laws on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools. The influence of this law is controversial. It is more a clarification of the existing law (first introduced in 1905) that was demanded by some public school headmasters, who saw the problems with the respect of the principle of laïcité increase. This law definitely did not change anything in the principles.

[edit] Loss of landmarks — search for new references

Seeing the unemployment of their parents, some children in these communities reject their parents' values, especially their work ethic, as criminality is seen as bringing "easy money," while honest behavior is seen as leading to poverty. The elder son — grand frère — becomes the ruler of the family and the model for the young ones. Recently, the term "grand frère" was recuperated to designate young adults from the suburbs who volunteer to encourage French youth to enter mainstream French society.

In the 1990s, Islamism started to spread in the French suburbs. This phenomenon is revealed by the 1995 bombings by the Armed Islamic Group, supported by French citizens.

An editorial from the BBC reported that French society's perceptions of Islam and of immigrants have alienated many French Muslims and may have been a factor in the causes of the riots; "Islam is seen as the biggest challenge to the country's secular model in the past 100 years," and the "assertiveness of French Islam is seen as a threat not just to the values of the republic, but to its very security," due to "the worldwide rise of Islamic militancy." At the same time, the editorial questioned whether such alarm is justified, citing that France's Muslim ghettos are not hotbeds of separatism and that "the suburbs are full of people desperate to integrate into the wider society." [10] A New York Times editorial, on the other hand, noted that though many rioters and arsonists are young French Muslims, of West African or Maghreb origin, the riots have not been dominated by any sort of ideological or religious overtones. A minority of rioters are of a Christian background, second-generation Portuguese immigrants, and some are children of native French (NYT, 5 Nov). On November 7, 2005, the Union of Islamic Organisations of France issued a fatwa condemning the ongoing violence.

[edit] Influence of international events and French foreign policy

Some descendants of immigrants have a strong identification with their ancestors' country, even if they have never visited in person. Thus, some international events, and French foreign policy, sometimes have a strong influence.

Identification with the conditions of foreign populations is not restricted to the originating country, but extends to similar populations. For example, the rise of antisemitic violences in 2003-2002 was correlated with the second Intifada (Le Monde and Libération Apr. 2 2004, [11]); many reported feeling that they belonged to the same Arab and Muslim worldwide community.

[edit] Economic context

[edit] Income

As in every country, some areas have a very high unemployement rate. Social security, unemployement and other welfare system benefits allow families with no paid income to survive for an indefinite period. Welfare benefits include housing benefits and allocations familiales (welfare benefits for children). The sum that is paid to a non-working family is similar to that which one would receive working at a minimum wage part time job. In France, there is a minimum salary called the SMIC: salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance. This is the minimal interprofessional wage which follows the economic growth of the country [12]). It is illegal to hire someone for less than it. In 2005, the SMIC was 8.03 EUR per hour, 1,217.88 EUR per month for a full-time job. However, even the wage of a full-time unqualified job is often insufficient for the lifestyles of many people.

[edit] Housing costs

If a family has less than 3 children, it will almost always receive financial aid in the form of Aide Personnalisée au Logement (APL), personalised accommodation help), which is calculated according to the global revenue of the household, and can account for as much as a third or even a half of the rent amount. If the family has three or more children it is not eligible for APL, but receives allocation familiales (family allowance), the amount of which depends on both the revenue of the household and the number of children, but it is not linear (the difference of amount between 3 and 4 children is higher than the one between, say, 6 and 5). The money is always paid to the household, not individually. The housing projects are not free, but are relatively inexpensive, and there is also an abundance of cheap rental accommodation in the zones sensibles.

[edit] Health care costs

In France no matter what your income is, doctor fees and medicine are at least partially refunded by social security; between 30% and 100%. Low income families get CMU ("couverture maladie universelle - universal health allowance), meaning not only 100% of the cost of medical expenses is paid for by the social security, but also that one does not have to pay upfront (whereas if you have the standard 30%-60% non-CMU coverage, you have to pay for everything, then send back forms or have your file electronically updated, and then be refunded by the social security). CMU, however only applies to very poor families.

[edit] Education costs

Education is compulsory up to age 16. After this age, school is optional and is carried out in the lycée (high school) in preparation for the baccalauréat, an academic degree. Entrance to both the college (junior high) and lycée are based using a "sectorisation" system, assigning students to schools geographically. However, one can attend a different public high school through other means, such as learning Portuguese or other specialist subjects. As in many countries, the quality of education offered by different public high schools varies. Some parents chose to send their children to private high schools, which often offer a higher level of education than the local school they would have attended. Some private schools are not very expensive, offering tuition for as low as €200-€300 per year.

Higher education is divided into three different categories: Universities, which are public; Grandes écoles which are public or private, and further study in a lycée towards a Brevet de Technicien Supérieur. Entrance to all is based upon the completion of the baccalauréeat. Universities are the only ones who are allowed to deliver the title of Doctor, hence PhD's, medical doctors and dentists are all educated at universities. Also, universities are not free, fees range from €100 to €600 and social security payments (€200) may be demanded for students who are older than 20. This may be a lot for some students, although those from poor families are exempt from paying fees and social security.

Entrance to Grande Ecoles are normally for students who have already passed two years of further study at a universite or equivalent. They can cost up to €6000 annually and generally lead to middle or high class positions and have a very good reputation amongst companies and employers. Public universities also give good education and graduates from universities have a reputation for being well educated and well trained, but there are significant differences between curricula, with some (such as medicine) being highly selective and with high reputation, while some others are overcrowded and may not offer good job prospects. French medical doctors are amongst the best in the world. However, given the large numbers of graduates it generates, it can be very hard to get a job without additional qualifications.

Student housing is cheap, ranging from €70 to €200 per month. However, students from poor backgrounds may have their rent paid for by the government, along with a monthly grant with which to buy food and books.

As in other countries, the education received at the lycée and the peer group that a child is part of depends upon the high school the child attends. In the zones sensibles (sensitive areas) where rioting takes place, many students don't see the opportunities offered to them by the French education system. Also, the teachers in these areas are normally the least experienced, as those with experience avoid working in the 'zones sensibles' if they can help it, limiting the access that many children may have to French higher education. To counter these effects, the French government established a system known as "ZEP" ("zones of priority education"), with incentives for teachers to teach in the zones as well as increased funding. The ZEP, though, were criticized by the right-wing government which took power in 2002; in 2005, Nicolas Sarkozy, as head of the UMP, the leading right-wing party, proposed a total reform of the system, which he deems insufficient.

Also, formal education is not 100% of the education that a child should receive. Obviously the parents are expected to help their children acquire the basic skills and knowledge to function in society. However, in poorer areas, the parents are often uneducated, with many women from North Africa being unable to read and write. Also, often there is no effective stability in the domestic environment (parents are obliged to work far away from home, due to a lack of local job opportunities). Motivation is also a large influence in education, and many don't see the point in getting an education.

[edit] Critics of the policy to solve these problems

The social policy implemented by left-wing governments since 1981 includes: minimal income for social insertion (revenu minimum d'insertion, RMI), universal disease insurance i.e. free medical care for low income families (couverture maladie universelle) and housing allowances (subsidies for building in case of HLM, or direct help with the rent in the case of the personalised accommodation help, aide personnalisée au logement, APL), help for the children (allocations familliales). The results of this policy are still controversial, but in 2005, it is clear that there is still no equality of opportunity when the residential district in which a child is born largely determines their educational and employment opportunities.

The right-wing party criticise this policy on several point:

  • when all the helps are added, the global income is not far from the minimal legal income (salaire minimum interprofessionel de croissance, Smic); there is therefore very little incentive to seek paid employment; this argument implies that there is a lack of workers, which is only true in rare activities such as construction and public works;
  • the social policy is a way to buy the social peace (Panem et circenses), not a way to solve the problem;
  • the criminality does not need social treatment but law enforcement.

[edit] Statistics

The poverty indices are higher in the cités; in 2005 (the number in parenthesis is the national value)[13]:

  • unemployment: 20.7% (8.6%);
  • poverty: 26.5% (6%);
  • family with only one parent: 15% (8%).

There are more young people than in the rest of France: 31.5% are 19 or less (24.5% nationwide).

[edit] Urban violence and nonviolent demonstrations

The first urban violence started in 1979 in Vaulx-en-Velin in the suburb of Lyon. But the first event which had wide media coverage was the violence in the Minguettes at Vénissieux, also near Lyon; however, media reports were unclear as to whether the violence was prompted by organized crime or by general dissatisfaction. After another violent episode in Vénissieux in March 1983, the Front National (a far right wing political party) improved its standing in the local elections, tapping into widespread fears that the violence would continue. Recent events have shown a mixture of violent and nonviolent protests, including:

  • events such as the "March for equality and against racism" (Marche pour l'égalité et contre le racisme) in 1983 and the women's movement Ni putes ni soumises ("Neither whores nor submissive"), formed in 2003 after the murder of Sohane Benziane, 17 years old, burnt alive by a young man.
  • explosions of urban violence: mostly arson and stone throwing, mainly occurring when an inhabitant of the area is wounded or killed during a police operation (usually lasting a few days), or on New Year's Day.

Policymakers have used two different approaches to curb violence in the French suburbs. Some have advocated the management of poverty and social isolation by deploying social workers, forming school aid associations, and instituing crime prevention programs (the 'soft' approach). Others have taken a more hard-line stance, asserting that the best way to curb the violence is to increase the police presence in poor and violence-prone neighborhoods (the 'stick' approach).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Le Gone du Chaâba (French)
  2. ^ Rapport préliminaire de la commission prévention du groupe d'études parlementaire sur la sécurité intérieure - Sur la prévention de la délinquance, presided by MP Jacques-Alain Bénisti, October 2004 (French)
  3. ^ Analyse de la version finale du rapport Benisti, Ligue des droits de l'homme (LDH, Human Rights League), and Final version of the Bénisti report given to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy (French)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

French Reports from SOS racisme

[edit] External links

  • (French) Audio book (mp3) of the introduction and first chapter of Éric Maurin's book : Le ghetto français, enquête sur le séparatisme social
  • (French) Listing of the 751 "Zones Urbaines Sensibles" including maps

[edit] Some films about the banlieue

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