The French riots in the banlieues


http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-institutions_government/immigration_3252.jsp">origins of the recent riots in the banlieues. He concludes that the problem is one of a "blocked escalator" which prevents upward mobility for many youths. This is an economic problem rather than a racial problem:
"Brouard & Tiberj – whose report on the wider issue of immigration and French politics is accessible here (pdf format) – portray a country very different from the image given of a navel-gazing, soul-searching people worried about anything coming from abroad. Indeed, France probably has the largest immigrant population of any European nation. In 1999, 23% (13.5 million out of 59 million) of the population were of immigrant origin – 4.3 million were migrants themselves, 5.5 million were children of immigrants, and 3.6 million were grandchildren. Of these, 22% were connected to north Africa, 5% to sub-Saharan Africa, and 53% to other European countries (mostly Italian, Spaniards, Portuguese and Poles, who also took decades to integrate). To understand the complexity of this situation, a reader might try to imagine what such percentages could mean for his or her own society."

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Posted: Sun - February 12, 2006 at 02:06 PM        

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