The banlieue

I hope we will survive some "minister of interior" that lits this "social fire" and will not elect him to a higher place..

An outcast generation

Analyst Hugues Lagrange says that young men have been driven to violence because they have no hope

Sunday November 6, 2005
The Observer


The spread of riots from Clichy-sous-Bois to other housing estates of the Ile de France and several provincial towns has opened a window into the disaffection of France's poor and multi-ethnic areas. It only took a spark for a conflagration to rip through these deprived suburban estates.
Confrontations with the police and burning cars recall smaller urban riots over 25 years. But it is important not to confuse actions by youths from poor, largely immigrant neighbourhoods with ordinary delinquency. These riots show evidence of social protest.

In one group of five youths questioned about the riots, three had left school at 15 or 16 with no qualifications and against the wishes and knowledge of their family. Another was an absentee father, while the last had a criminal record for abusing the police and handling stolen goods. None envisaged any employment beyond a job at McDonald's. They hang around the tower-blocks of the estates with their friends.
And it was precisely on such young men that news of the death of two boys from Clichy, killed while hiding from police, had the most impact. Whether or not it is true that the boys were actually being chased by police, it was a reflection of the appalling relationship between the youth and the police on these estates.

And it is upon these young men that the disdainful words of the Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, have also had the most impact. For years we have witnessed a sharp increase in offences and rebellion against the police - and the police have behaved as if they have personal scores to settle.

Indeed, evidence of abuse of power has increased at such an alarming rate that a priority must be a policy that not only addresses the underlying the concerns of this young population but institutions like the police.

That said, the situation is changing. Criminals bent on looting and destruction have joined the youths of these neighbourhoods and made the most of the confusion to steal, burn shops and even torch a school.

If such attacks are not brought under control, the population of these poor neighbourhoods, initially supportive of the 'kids' in their confrontation with the police, will turn against all rioters. That would again give the upper hand to heavy-handed repression.

Because the rapid spread of these clashes illustrates a wider problem: the places most severely affected are neighbourhoods which, for the past 20 to 30 years have suffered the highest levels of unemployment among the least educated.

France is committed to a concept of citizenship that ignores both cultural origin and religious orientation, so it has been difficult for the country to recognise that it has been fragmented by segregation. The estates are not places of lawlessness, but where, due to the social segregation, all social tensions have become exacerbated.

Far more than their parents, the youths of these estates feel misunderstood and hated. Those who are educated or have money have escaped, resulting in an overwhelming sense in the communities that those who remain have failed.

Contrary to widespread belief that public services have deserted these suburbs, the reality is that the desertion has come for the most part from the sections of population that have qualifications and a stable job.

It has been left to community associations, largely Muslim, to be the only effective social engines. Without a public policy that addresses these youth and their families with understanding and respect for their identity, we will not overcome a fracture as much cultural and political as it is social.

· Hugues Lagrange is one of France's leading experts on teenage criminality