France needs better integration

This past summer, I had the opportunity to study in Paris. I was
in the capital of France for only one month. It wasn’t a long
time, but long enough to become acclimated to the culture and
people.

Paris is a huge city ““ nearly 11.5 million people live in
the metropolitan area of Paris. The greater metropolitan area of
Paris also consists of “banlieus,” the suburban areas
of Paris that had the riots.

I was most impressed by the diversity of the city. Americans
often forget that Paris was once the capital of a world empire;
there are North African Muslims, West African blacks and every race
and religion. The diversity of Paris rivals Los Angeles, but Paris
has not yet learned how to live with its diversity.

In Paris, I had several encounters with young immigrant men or
their second-generation children. In hindsight, these encounters
foreshadowed the rioting in the city suburbs. They harassed the
females in our program when we were out late at night.

The worst event that I experienced came after the program was
finished when two brothers in my hostel were robbed at gunpoint by
a large group of immigrants late at night in Montmartre.

While these events were by no means indicative of the norm,
Paris at night becomes a different place. After the tourist crowds
depart, the disenfranchised poor come to the city center to pass
time and drink.

It is possible any night of the week to find large groups of
youth looking for something to do, out of boredom or out of
frustration. The unemployment rate in France is nearly double that
of the United States, and for people of foreign national origin
it’s nearly five percentage points higher than the French
national average.

The French state has been struggling with economic reforms for
many years now. People are afraid of losing the blanket of the
welfare state that worked so well in the 1970s and 1980s. One of
the many reasons that the French voted against the European
Union’s constitution was out of fear of what might happen to
the welfare state.

Worse yet, in the places hardest hit by unemployment, the
population is mostly young, immigrant and poor. The French have
been trying for years to find a way to integrate these youths into
French society by making them productive members of the French
Republic. There have been no easy answers.

The French believe the Republic to be universal, thus all
integration policies are designed to promote a universal and
unitary people without difference given to race, creed or politics.
In contrast we integrate immigrants differently: in America one can
be Indian and American, or Muslim and American. In France,
immigrants must be French first.

As a consequence many of the regions that are predominately
immigrant lack immigrant leaders, since a vast majority people in
these communities lack the qualifications to become elected
officials in their own towns. In fact, nearly all of the mayors of
the banlieus are white people representing North African
communities.

Given these two major problems, it is no small wonder that the
young roaming immigrants that I saw in Paris during the summer
resorted to overturning and setting cars on fire in their own
communities.

We in Los Angeles endured riots much worse in 1992, and the city
still smarts from its self-inflicted wounds, as attested to by the
empty lots that were once businesses in South Los Angeles.

The riots occurring in Paris are reflections of the frustration
and fear of the unknown future that many French immigrants feel.
With luck the French state will find a way to incorporate all
elements of its population and decide its future together ““
this time without violence.

Corpuz is a fifth-year international development studies and
political science student.