FRANCE: In the wake of renewed violence in Parisian suburbs, French sociologist says poor quality of life is still at the heart of the problem

Record ID: 566353

  • Title: FRANCE: In the wake of renewed violence in Parisian suburbs, French sociologist says poor quality of life is still at the heart of the problem
  • Date: 28th November 2007
  • Summary: (W4) VILLIERS-LE-BEL, FRANCE (NOVEMBER 26, 2007) (REUTERS) RIOTERS IN THE STREET WITH BURNING CAR ON THE SIDE OVERTURNED BURNING CAR ANOTHER BURNING CAR FIRE FROM BURNING CAR BEING DOUSED
  • Embargoed: 13th December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,Social Services / Welfare
  • Reuters ID: LVAE4ECR6H5A1RLMTZ1OLMYCI0I0
  • Story Text: A French sociologist says poor quality of life is to blame for the problem of violence in France but the French Interior Minister says violence is caused by a "minority" of people.
    In the aftermath of the violence that hit the northern Parisian suburb of Villers-le-bel, analysts, politicians and residents alike have been trying to understand and explain the outbreak of violence.
    Villiers-le-Bel residents woke up on Tuesday morning (November 27) to the damage caused by running battles between police and rioters in the suburb north of Paris where two youths died after a crash involving a police car.
    The number of police officers injured in clashes in Paris suburbs overnight reached about 60, police said on Tuesday, after a second night of violence. Police officers were hit with stones, petrol bombs and firecrackers that exploded over their heads during hours of skirmishes with rioters in the northern suburb of Villiers-le-Bel and nearby areas.
    Despite appeals for calm from the crash victims' families, rioters torched a library, a tax office and damaged dozens of shops and businesses, police said.
    It revived memories of 2005 riots in France's poor, often ethnically diverse, housing estates which were the worst urban riots in France in 40 years.
    French sociologist Laurent Mucchielli saw similarities with the 2005 riots, remarking that the quality of life in the suburbs, which in some cases has degraded, is still at the heart of the issue.

    "The first similarity is the fundamental reasons, the crux of the problem - the poor standard of life in the area, which has not improved since 2005. In certain respects, it has even worsened. The fundamental problem is still there, which, unfortunately, no one talks about," Mucchielli said.
    He also evoked the phenomenon of ghettoisation, which he said was increasingly prevalent in French society.

    "The fundamental problem is that of ghettoization which pervades French society, which has caused much suffering for a long time, but it remains a question that has not been posed. We have finished with the presidential elections, but even then this question was not raised. Yet in many ways this is the number one social problem in France," said Mucchielli.
    High unemployment, underperforming schools, poor relations with the police, inadequate housing and controversial new immigration laws have created a generation of frustrated youths ready to turn to violence at any time.
    The official line taken by government officials have widely condemned the violence as unacceptable, with French Interior Minister Michelle Alliot-Marie dismissing the violence as the actions of a minority of opportunists looking to steal and vandalise.

    "Now, these events have effectively served as a pretext for a certain number of groups, a minority, who have used the circumstances, alongside others, to steal, vandalise and pillage. These people represent a tiny part of of the people of the area and villages concerned, who are the primary victims both directly by these actions and indirectly because of the image that is given to all the areas by these delinquents," said Alliot-Marie speaking in front of the National assembly.
    However, residents of Villiers-le-Bel appeared to think the violence was reflective of a larger problem of poor education.

    "I feel that we ghettoise the people and now effectively the youths don't have family education or even the bare minimum. The schools do what they can, but when schools produce youths who can't read or write properly by the time they start secondary school, we have to ask ourselves, what exactly are the schools doing?" said Robert Lietard.
    The several hundred men and women who make up Toulouse's fire service are getting more concerned about their personal safety when going out to emergency calls. Increasingly, they are coming under physical attack from youths in some of the most isolated and troubled housing estates.
    Fireman Julien Federic thinks youths target emergency services staff because they view them as part of the state system.

    "They many not have anything against us personally but to them, we represent the system or the state and it's still us going out there so it's us who are being targeted regardless," said Federic.
    Fire service personnel attending emergency calls in Toulouse are guarded by armed police to make sure they are not attacked by petrol bombs or concrete objects from the top floors of tower blocks. Without armed police protection, they refuse to go to some housing estates.
    French housing estates with double digit youth unemployment have become no go areas for businesses, banks and some state services.
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