THE FRENCH AUTUMN RIOTS OF 2005 AND THE CRISIS OF REPUBLICAN INTEGRATION

 FRANCIS MESTRIES

INTRODUCTION children (both second and third generations) into the nation’s social, rench police intelligence has economic, and political fabric. This classified the street riots that problem stems from the predicament swept through the suburbs of of the nation’s main institutions—the French cities during October welfare state, social urbanism, the Fand November of 2005 as the most school system, the justice system, the serious popular rebellion since 1968. police, and the family unit—in a Even though car burnings and clashes context of economic stagnation and with police had been an often unemployment. televised and ludic weekend tradition A number of false and ideological among marginalized youths since reasons have been used to explain 1981—and, particularly, 1990—these these riots. However, these were not events had never taken place racially motivated, as in the case of simultaneously in as many cities or U.S. ghettoes, nor are the French for such a prolonged amount of time. working-class suburbs comparable to Neither had they swept into some the ghettoes. In fact, there was no neighboring countries or targeted racial violence. The rioters were not public buildings, businesses, and street gang members fighting over schools. The sheer scale of the revolt drug territory, as suggested by the highlighted the French integration then Minister of the Interior Nicolas model’s growing inability to Sarkozy. And they were not Muslim incorporate immigrants and the fundamentalists, as the far-right ethnic minorities comprised by their would have it. In fact, the lack of a

2007 SECOND SEMESTER 117 MIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO FRANCIS MESTRIES THE FRENCH AUTUMN RIOTS OF 2005 political project or a social utopia was France, or UOIF) declared a fatwa the most striking factor in this against the arsonists, although spontaneous, anarchic revolt against another Muslim religious economic marginalization and social representative opposed it. It was discrimination. around this time that a sixty-five year old white man in Stains, Seine St. Denis, became the first and last THE RIOTS. casualty of the riots. Low-scale disturbances spread to Athens, Suburban youths of African origin Rotterdam, and Brussels. On started rebelling on October 27, 2005. November 12, in an attempt to As in the case of many previous street control the movement, the riots in France and Los Angeles during government decreed a curfew and 1992, the violence was spurred by an declared a state of emergency, banning encounter involving the police. Three nightly social meetings in public young theft suspects were being places and authorizing summary chased by policemen in Clichy-sous- penal sanctions and brazen searches. Bois, a suburb of Seine Saint-Denis in This measure, abetted by a law passed northeast Paris, when they decided to in 1955 to fight Algerian take refuge in a power substation to revolutionaries, was a completely escape abuse. Two of them were disproportionate response electrocuted and died. In response, car to disturbances carried out by burnings and violent clashes between marginalized youths. It was youths and police took place in the denounced by Arab and African area. But it was the use of tear gas on minorities who resented its colonialist a mosque and the comments made by character and many mayors refused to Sarkozy—who claimed he was going implement it. The government also to clean the “scum” off the streets— arrested thousands of rioters, that ignited the Parisian suburbs. By deported some of them for being early November, the revolt had spread foreigners, and threatened to cancel to other French cities and even subsidies for large families whose downtown Paris. Banlieues throughout parents were incapable of controlling the country, from Strasbourg to their children. The riots progressively Rennes, Nice to Lille, burned at night. subsided, but the government decided By November 8, riots were taking to prolong the curfew for three place in some Brussels, Berlin, and months in spite of protests by Bremen neighborhoods (like France, left-wing parties. They eventually Belgium and Germany have a large relented and lifted it in January. number of Maghrebian or Turkish After three weeks of upheaval, minorities). The Union des more than 10,000 vehicles and tens of Organizations Islamiques de France buildings had been burnt: schools, (Union of Islamic Organizations of libraries, gyms, police stations,

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tribunals, town halls, depots, where the kingdom sends its businesses, workshops, and, in some unwanted population. In the late cases, churches and synagogues. The 1950s, many Algerian families who rioters mostly targeted state offices were fleeing the war began settling in and, to a lesser extent, businesses and these areas, which were built to shopping centers, generally avoiding provide moderately priced social religious buildings. However, many of housing for the working class after the cars they burnt in their partially World War II. They were later joined self-destructive rage belonged to by other Maghrebian immigrants and, immigrants and other people in their as of late, many families from Sub- same condition, all of whom lived in Saharan Africa. The French white and the same neighborhoods. Their tactics Christian population concurrently were those of an urban guerilla, diminished, and now most of the relying on cell phones to coordinate inhabitants of the banlieues are French their various small contingents and citizens and second or third escape the police after throwing generation immigrants of non- Molotov cocktails. European origin (Boils, 2006). The government’s response was These neighborhoods consist of firm: 11,000 policemen were large tower complexes that are usually mobilized and almost 3,000 people fifteen to twenty floors tall, all of were arrested. A third of them were which are identical. There are very underage, a few were foreigners, and few commercial outlets and scarcely very few had criminal records. Six any recreational, cultural or hundred were held for trail. The race transportation facilities; there are no for the presidential nomination gathering centers or attractive plazas. between Sarkozy and former Prime The buildings, some of which are half Minister Dominique De Villepin a century old, are in very bad resulted in two kinds of political condition: there are elevator, discourse: the former emphasized the plumbing, and garbage collection need for tough measures while the problems, as well as lack of second insisted on “understanding maintenance in common areas. and dialogue.” It was Sarkozy who Municipal authorities pay little prevailed (Morice A., 2005). attention to the residences because many poor tenants owe rent and others destroy the property, which THE BANLIEUES they perceive as alien (ibid). These bedroom-cities are far from the urban The French word for suburb is centers and house poor and banlieue, a word derived from bannir, marginalized foreign populations. mettre au ban—that is, exclude or They once comprised 1,530,000 banish. The banlieues have been the homes, or what used to be 6 percent place in the outskirts of the capital of French households: a total of 752

118 SECOND SEMESTER 2007 2007 SECOND SEMESTER 119 MIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO MIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO FRANCIS MESTRIES THE FRENCH AUTUMN RIOTS OF 2005 dilapidated, highly populated and class. The banlieues, however, are not dangerous urban areas. The the product of an apartheid policy or government started demolishing or a social practice of racial segregation: rehabilitating many of these buildings they include African and European in the 1980s, but progress has been immigrants, their children, and French slow: in 2001, there were 250,000 whites (or “Gauls”). As has been new homes and 40,000 rennovated pointed out, the government provides ones (ibid). There is a deficit of some kind of upkeep and public 1,300,000 homes (320,000 in the Paris services (education, health, subsidized metropolitan area alone) and, in many housing, etc.). Also, unlike what poor neighborhoods, two families happens in U.S. ghettoes, people tend often share the same house while to earn their living legally (salaries, others have no house at all. These social benefits) rather than illegally conditions are exacerbated by the fact (drug trafficking, theft; Rey and that African immigrant families tend Body-Gendrot, 1999). In fact, many to be large (three to ten children) and of these areas have multiethnic fronts the apartments are usually quite small that fight problems such as addiction (an average of 28 square meters or 301 and lack of services, and promote square feet for five people). On top of cultural and sporting activities. There all this, unemployment is rife and is, nevertheless, a tendency toward government aid is not enough. Young social, ethnic, and inter-generational French citizens whose families have antagonism (Bruneau, 2004), both lived in France for two generations within the neighborhoods themselves must rely on precarious and badly and between different banlieues. This remunerated jobs. In Aubervilliers, has been exacerbated by the 12.4 percent of households depend on decreasing amount of “Gauls” and the the R.M.I.1 and 18.3 percent receive growing ethnic diversity. C.M.U.;2 aid packages for large families increased three-fold over the span of three years, and the average THE FAMILY STRUCTURE income of tax exempt households is OF AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS 465 euros. Many have compared these Anthropological studies have neighborhoods with the U.S. ghettoes examined the confrontation, given the perpetual presence of drugs, transformation, and adjustment of street gangs, petty crime, and inter- traditional systems and values neighborhood and class hostilities experienced by Maghrebian or involving the French white middle Sub-Saharan families residing in

1 Revenu minimum d’insertion, or Insertion Minimum Income, is a reduced economic subsidy pro- vided by the French government to the unemployed. 2 Coverture Maladie Universelle, or Universal Health Coverage.

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France. The extended family the traditional Muslim family (Todd, networks, endogamy, and the inferior ibid.). Teenagers of both sexes begin to status of women in the patrilinear question the authoritarian and societies of Northern Africa, as well as patriarchal family structure, rebuff polygamy, communal traditions, and their parents’ humble stance in high birth rates among Sub-Saharan regards to the dominant society and African families, all clash with the reject their occupational fate. Young social values and housing system girls refuse endogamous marriage and found in France (Todd, 1994). France’s a life as homemakers, seeking to excel diminutive apartments are not fit for in their studies. The breach between large families, and submission and illiterate parents and children with a withdrawal from public spaces does secondary education additionally not sit well with the almost undermines parental authority, and egalitarian participation of women in families live under the constant threat French society. “Immigrants come of disintegration. The most serious from African societies that are vastly dangers are the reversal of the parent- different from French culture. These child relationship (e.g., cases of contrasts are not easily overcome, children who beat their mother) and neither by the poor who emigrate nor young males’ propensity toward by the rich who receive them: they crime. Monomaternal or polygamous involve different worldviews, social Sub-Saharan families run by women behaviors that clash with those of the are increasingly common, and the lack receiving society, and qualifications of a father figure is a constant that have little to do with the skills problem (Quiminal, 1999). Recently required in the receiving country. immigrated Sub-Saharan families are Culturally speaking, the issue of also the most marginalized group in women’s social participation poses terms of housing (many live in shacks the major problem” (Castaingts, 2005). or unoccupied buildings) and Traditional family systems are, employment (their educational levels nevertheless, profoundly affected by are low, their knowledge of French is the immigration process: as time goes sometimes insufficient, and they have by and the children become familiar very few qualifications). with the language, the school system, and the culture of the receiving nation, patriarchal structures, THE CRISIS OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM women’s social exclusion, and endogamy become unfeasible. The Public, non-religious, and universal strong cultural pressure exercised by free education has been the French society leads to clashes fundamental assimilation tool between individualist and egalitarian through which immigrants are values and communitarian, patrilinear incorporated into French culture, ones, which leads to the implosion of following the ideals of citizenship,

120 SECOND SEMESTER 2007 2007 SECOND SEMESTER 121 MIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO MIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO FRANCIS MESTRIES THE FRENCH AUTUMN RIOTS OF 2005 liberty, and equality. In fact, until the educational aid and scholarships for 1990s, education provided some marginalized areas, as well as the North African youths with the means reinstatement of the notion of a to achieve social ascent: they became common culture (Lorcerie, ibid). Said professionals, businessmen, policies failed to curtail ethnic technicians, etc., the so-called discrimination and professional Beurgeoisie3 (Castles and Miller, 2004). segregation, and the children of African A study addressing the educational immigrants showed comparatively less problems of second generation schooling: 71 percent of Algerians older immigrants revealed that, despite than 15 had no diploma, and only 3.1 having the highest failure rate of in per cent had finished high school or primary school, this population had some kind of technical certificate became more proficient than the (Zehraoui, 1999). There was also a children of native French during noticeable educational “ghettoization”: secondary levels. This was due to the the more immigrant children a given fact their families showed more school had, the more neglected, low- interest in their educational quality, and violent it was, all of which achievements and made use of the accelerated the French Gaul exodus. government’s special educational This was compounded with the assistance programs, which are meant conflict over Muslim girls’ use of the for students facing cultural difficulties veil, which was banned in order to (Lorcerie, 1999). enforce the non-religious and mixed There were attempts to institute a character of the French school system. bilingual and intercultural educational This triumph on the part of policy during the late 1970s and the conservative secularists only increased 1980s; countries of origin financed exasperation among the Muslim language and culture courses taught by minority. native teachers in an attempt to In fact, the school system is facilitate the integration of immigrant undergoing a profound crisis that children and adopt the multicultural includes serious authority problems model favored in English-speaking and lack of discipline; the intrusion of countries. This policy, however, was anti-social and delinquent behavior; a not implemented on a massive level growing inequality of resources and and was quickly abandoned when the staff from one neighborhood and children of immigrants became French. school to another; programs and In the 1990s, this project gave way to teachers who have failed to adapt to policies that attempted to balance global realities, and early hyper- quality standards through the use of specialization.4 It is therefore not

3 From “Beur” (the verlan or French inverted slang term for “arabe”), which is the name given to the French children of North African immigrants. 4 In fact, admission to the grandes écoles, or elite French schools, is even less democratic today than it was twenty years ago.

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surprising that many young banlieue immigration continued through inhabitants fail at school. Reeve family reunification because, since (2006) quotes a unionized teacher: migrants form their own families or “You really believe in school because it bring them from abroad, temporary is supposedly a tool for social ascent. circular labor migration always gives Burning it down symbolically states way to permanent settling in the its ineffectiveness. You turn against it receiving country. because it has disappointed you.” The children of these immigrants could not take the jobs previously held by their parents, nor were they LABOR DISCRIMINATION interested in doing so. They had been AND UNEMPLOYMENT educated in France, many were already French, and they wished to The workplace provides the most break away from the sub-proletariat. insight into the latent racism Few were able to do so because of prevalent in French society. Foreign general unemployment, their limited immigrants have played a crucial access to higher education, and economic role in the development of pervasive, latent discrimination. The French industrialism since the early economic crises and the subsequent 20th century: they comprised a stagnation increased competition submissive, cheap, and flexible among lowly qualified French whites workforce that adapted to economic and the “new,” darker French with cycles and cost little since it was unpronounceable names and amenable to indirect salaries; many hybridized speech, who often lived in were single men of productive age the same sordid neighborhoods. This who often returned to their country competition based on the fear of of origin when they grew old. “those who have come to take our They worked in the public services jobs” has played a crucial role in the sector as well as the automotive, exacerbation of racism and the metallurgical, chemical, textile, and popularity of the Front National, or mining industries, among others. National Front (Castaingts, op. cit.). They also took on menial jobs. High unemployment rates have Unfortunately (or not), the post- been a structural feature of France industrial revolution led to a profound since the 1970s. They are the result industrial restructuring and of several institutional factors such as eliminated most low-qualification stringent labor regulations; high jobs, as well as many of the sectors employment taxes; the high costs of and productive branches in which layoffs vis-à-vis the increasing these migrants worked. Many popularity of temporary hiring; a found themselves unemployed while segmented labor market; reduced the programs for legal labor migration labor mobility, and lack of adjustment were cancelled in 1974. Legal in terms of workforce qualification,

122 SECOND SEMESTER 2007 2007 SECOND SEMESTER 123 MIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO MIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO FRANCIS MESTRIES THE FRENCH AUTUMN RIOTS OF 2005 among others (Pérez Pérez, 2006). children of immigrants are thought to Unemployment rates hovered above have difficulties adapting to 10 per cent for a long time and, in workplace discipline. In Clichy-sous- 2005, they were still at 9.8 percent, Bois, the area where the catalytic the European Union’s sixth worst rate events took place, unemployment had (Pérez Pérez, ibid). The situation was reached 40 percent (Reeve, op. cit.). quite different in the United States In such a context and with the and United Kingdom, where welfare state in the midst of a financial unemployment rates were less than crisis, subsidies and social education half and all immigrants, legal or not, and health policies “are not enough to were able to find employment. In bring about social integration,” France, unemployment mostly affects especially “when prejudice and racial, the youth, people older than 55, and ethnic, or religious stigmatization limit lowly qualified workers. access to employment” (Rincón The suburbs of large cities are the Gallardo, 2005). areas hardest hit by unemployment: 21 percent of their population is jobless (the overall national average is THE DEMOGRAPHIC IMPACT 10 per cent); in the northeastern OF IMMIGRATION IN FRANCE. Parisian banlieues where the riots began the rate is as high as 26 percent In 1999, 4, 310,000 of France’s (Boils, 2006). Young Maghrebians are residents (or 7.4 percent of the particularly affected: in 1992, national population) had been born unemployed youths of Algerian origin outside the country. More than 1.5 comprised 40 percent of the national million immigrants had become average, while the jobless children of naturalized in the previous decades, native French amounted to 11 and half a million were colored percent. Not even educated beurs citizens hailing from the so-called could find work: 26.5 percent of DOM-TOM.5 The main sending Algerian men and 36 percent of Algerian countries were Algeria (576,000), women were jobless in 1996 Portugal (570,000), Morrocco (Zehraoui, 1999), and discrimination (521,000), Italy (380,800), Spain played an evident role in this (316,500), Tunisia (201,700) and (Tribalat, 1999). It is common for Turkey (176,000). France had Europe’s employers to refuse applicants on the largest Muslim population: 2.5 million basis of skin color, surname, or place in 1990, 5 million in 2007. Between of residence. As the leader of the 1980 and 2000, approximately 545,000 French employers association openly foreigners entered France legally each stated, “The culture of the banlieues is year, which amounted to just 0.01 antithetical to that of firms,” and percent of a total population of 62.7

5 Départements d’outre-mer, or Overseas Departments, and Territoires d’outre-mer, or Overseas Territories.

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million in 2007. By the late 1990s and papers”), staged several protests the early 2000s immigrants were during the 1990s, participating in almost twice that number. Over two church takeovers and hunger strikes. thirds of them were reuniting with They managed to achieve some their families, others were marrying regularization policies under socialist French citizens or seeking asylum, governments but, since 2002, they and only 12 percent were in France have been systematically hunted for work-related reasons (Le Monde, down and deported. The French 2006). government has complained that Even though immigrant flow into Spain and Italy tolerate clandestine France is not massive, it now migration that subsequently ends up comprises 25 percent of the nation’s in France. demographic growth, which is characterized by low birth rates. Immigrants help counteract the THE CRISIS OF INTEGRATION POLICIES accelerated ageing of the population and provide an economically active The youth riots in France’s urban and population for the proximate future, social periphery are the consequence as they tend to have 35 percent more of a worn out institutional system children than French families (Boils, that has exhausted its economic and op. cit.). Even though this does not cultural assimilation capacities, but pose an immediate threat to Gaul they also owe much to increasingly dominion, immigrants’ high birth tyrannical measures of political rates worry the right wing and exert a control and police repression. “The toll on social services. crisis is that of French Republicanism: The European Union has an the French Republic tells everyone that estimated 3 million undocumented ‘liberty, equality, fraternity’ is a migrants, 500,000 of which currently wonderful promise, but it is not there reside in France. The country receives for everyone; and when you are between 10 and 20,000 of them each young, educated, and you know that year (0.03% of the population). Most the school system is going to be are lowly qualified adult men who segregated in actuality (and not just work in the informal economy in theory), this is going to be very (domestic services, manufacture, frustrating. This is the only crisis of construction, agroindustry, and such magnitude in Europe, a general agriculture) under conditions of institutional crisis: it applies to the exploitation or near-enslavement, or justice system, the police, but formally unemployed people who particularly to the school system” survive by working on the streets and (Wieviorka, 2006). engaging in small-time trafficking. Indeed, social and political These undocumented migrants, better institutions are in crisis: the French known as the sans-papiers (or “without social welfare system, one of the most

124 SECOND SEMESTER 2007 2007 SECOND SEMESTER 125 MIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO MIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO FRANCIS MESTRIES THE FRENCH AUTUMN RIOTS OF 2005 advanced in the world, already shows exist. This is why unconscious, reli- a big deficit in the pension and health gious, or ethnically-based identities coverage areas due to the ageing of the surpass the feeling of republican citi- population and their anticipated zenship. … Vertigo and anarchic re- retirement. The courts are backlogged volts are an expression of frustration (Debray, 2005, quoted in Cruz Zamo- with trials, disarmed in the face of rano, 2006). delinquents who are too young to go to jail and whom the system does not know how to handle. The police lack And yet, the children of North sufficient resources to fight growing African immigrants did try to crime, and families disintegrate as integrate into French culture: many parents divorce, the gap between married native French citizens and parents and children increases, and were institutionally incorporated. The monoparental households become French naturalization policies (which increasingly common. National privilege jus soli over the blood rights cultural integration is threatened by still recognized in Germany) and the the growing U.S. influence and the welcoming refugee programs were communal seclusion of ethnic quite benevolent during the 1980s. minorities, who feel discriminated Schools opened up to immigrants and against and seek to reaffirm their tried to cater to their needs, but as the identity through religious conversion. nation went into economic recession This is the case of some Muslim and unemployment grew, the children communities whose religious of immigrants were subjected to approach sometimes takes an integrist growing racism and became “second or political stance as a form of protest. class citizens: France has not been On the other hand, racist able to integrate them, neither attitudes and xenophobic political socially, politically, or economically” opinions boost the popularity of the (Cruz Zamorano, ibid). These new Front National and other right-wing French generations have been the parties: victims of latent racism on all fronts: the educational system (the ban on The French Republic was the integra- veils in schools), the cultural space tion machine; when it broke down, (discrimination in the private labor all of its pieces stopped working at sector), housing (limited access to once: the army, the family, and the living quarters), and political racism school system, which were the ele- (racist attacks and hate crimes; ments that passed on patriotic cul- Bataille, 1999). ture. The same thing happened to the Lacking a cohesive family church, the political parties, and the unions. Rule of law cannot exist structure and human and parental without common values, since citi- monetary capital, most of them are zens identify with their fellows unable to incorporate themselves into through models that do not currently the normative structures of the

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middle class and are “assimilated doubly guilty of treason: he is part of downwards” (Portes and De Wind, his group of origin without really 2006). They are also unable to join the belonging to it, and he is part of the transnational ethnic networks that receiving society without really provide youths with family and belong to it” (Lapeyronnie, 1999). communal support, maintain cultural These youths find discrimination values and behaviors belonging to the more difficult to bear than their country of origin, and create ethnic parents because they were born in labor markets through which they France and no longer have ties to could attain a modicum of economic another place of origin; they cannot wealth (García Borrego, 2006). In fact, take refuge in their roots (ibid) and, in most of them have been acculturated. response, try to build an identity that [According to Le Monde, in 1995] exacerbates their difference. This, only 24 percent of children born to for example, is the case with radical Algerian parents speak their parents Muslims whose identity is based on language and only 14 per cent were their problematic experiences in the practicing Muslims, while 50 percent receiving society and acts as a demand of Algerian children born in France for recognition (ibid). Ultimately, had had their first relationship with these approaches lead to clashes with native French (Le Monde, 1995). police, reverse racism, and street Nevertheless, in the banlieues, this violence. acculturation has not resulted in a complete adoption of French culture, which is considered “second class.” POLITICAL BACKGROUND There, youths cultivate an AND CAUSES OF THE RIOTS “Americanized culture, that of hip hop’s gangsta rap: they wear the same The Parisian suburbs used to be the clothes, use the same gestures, play capital’s “red belt,” the area where the the same videogames, listen to the Parti Communiste Français (the same music, and organize in gangs French Communist Party, or PCF) had that are similar to those in the United social and political control. But, States” (Castaingts, op. cit.). In fact, starting in the 1980s, the party grew they are pushed toward a culture of so weak that it almost disappeared violence. from the region, leaving a large The great trap and paradox organizational gap and a scarcity of involving the children of African social and housing policies. A large immigrants is that, even when part of the PCF ’s base moved to the an individual integrates and becomes Front National, inaugurating the acculturated, “French society will still division between the native and consider him inferior because he is naturalized French proletariats. different, but he has already cut his During the 1980s, the frustration ties to his group of origin. He is and belligerence latent among the

126 SECOND SEMESTER 2007 2007 SECOND SEMESTER 127 MIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO MIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO FRANCIS MESTRIES THE FRENCH AUTUMN RIOTS OF 2005 inheritors of migration was channeled socialist government, which failed to toward civic and political venues. In integrate them into the political 1983, under the socialist government system, the beur activists had become and after the first suburban riots, a disenchanted. The disappointment in large anti-racist movement brought both the political left and the anti- the French public and beur youths racist beur movement, which had only together on a 100,000 person march focused on one aspect of social from Marseille to Paris. This exclusion and had not solved the movement insisted on equality at the economic problems facing its youth, same time that it demanded the right led to their loss of legitimacy and gave to cultural difference, mixing way to Muslim associations, some republican ideals with communal of which followed communal forms of organization and culture traditions and rejected integration: (Wihtol de Wenden, 1999). The “the associative movement had to undocumented immigrant protesters relocate or disappear” (Wihtol de wanted to express their desire for a Wenden, 1999). The late 1990s saw kind of political conversation that the emergence of the sans-papiers’ went beyond full and participative movement, which gained the support citizenship and addressed all levels, of French intellectuals, NGOs and the from the local to the national. They church, but did not achieve the kind even nominated candidates for of massive union between French municipal elections. They were youths of native and immigrant origin received by former president François that had taken place in the 1980s. Mitterrand, who provided some with The process of sociocultural resident status and ten-year work integration maintained it course, permits and naturalized many others. although new hybrid models—such as In exchange, the government and the a type of cultural integration that did socialist party attempted to take not completely relinquish family political control of the movement. identity—were adopted. Economic They co-opted its leaders and cut insertion, on the other hand, was them off from their popular base, thus negatively affected by the high neutralizing the movement’s radical unemployment rate and this created a potential. The tradition of anti- fertile ground for differentialism and capitalist struggle was lost after the communitarism (Wihtol de Wenden, defeat of the last immigrant worker 1999), along with spontaneous strikes, which did not connect to the manifestations of rage. Today “we no urban protests carried out by the longer have a worker’s (or citizen’s) immigrant’s children or obtain the movement, or a political party that support of the unionized French can politicize the frustration and rage workers (Dell’Umbria, 2006). experienced by these youths, and their By the 1990s and faced with the revolts take on a self-destructive lack of political will on the part of the tenor” (Noiriel, 2002).

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The right-wing governmental He supported the building of mosques policies implemented by Jacques and recognized all Muslim leaders— Chirac and Sarkozy starting in 2002 including some integrist associations reduced the amount of social without much representation—as programs and increased repressive and political interlocutors in an attempt security measures, amplifying the to control them. France’s former sense of moral wrong and injury. Minister of the Interior and, Locally subsidized youth employment unfortunately, its current president, programs, which hired second- seems to derive more of his ideas from generation banlieue youths as social Anglo-Saxon multiculturalism (which mediators, were suppressed; the has been questioned and even partially public health budget for impoverished eschewed in the United States) than areas was reduced; economic support from the homogenizing, assimilationist, for neighborhood social workers was and lay republican model. cancelled, and local police forces, who had gained the trust of the residents because they lived in the same SOME CLUES INTO THE MEANING problematic areas, were disbanded. OF THE RIOTS This urban policy was limited to an increase in policing activities and a The riots were the marginalized stance against terrorism and French youth’s demand for delinquency: youths were banned acknowledgment, an affirmation of from meeting around tower entrances their dignity and social and political to “stop the creation of gangs” (or, being. They were a protest against more to the point, to keep them from constant police abuse, arrests based thinking and acting collectively), and on ethnic profiling, and “accidental” renovation programs in highly beatings and deaths that always go deteriorated buildings were unpunished. These youths wanted to abandoned, leading to accidents and be French citizens as much as anyone the death of 60 people. Race conflicts else, and enjoy the employment, increased and, two months before the consumption, cultural, and riots, a purportedly accidental fire in a gratification rights they cannot access migrants’ dwelling caused the death because of their race or origin. In the of 14 people, including two children. words of J. Railte, Seine St. Denis’ Similar fires had happened before, communist senator, “The demand of killing 24 Africans in the outskirts second generation youths is to enjoy of Paris. complete citizenship in their diversity, In addition to a restrictive and not belong to this or that immigration policy and very tough communitarian, ethnic or religious security measures, Sarkozy group” (2005). “What they cannot implemented a U.S.-style bear is the breach between theory and communitarian integration policy. practice, between the motto of

128 SECOND SEMESTER 2007 2007 SECOND SEMESTER 129 MIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO MIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO FRANCIS MESTRIES THE FRENCH AUTUMN RIOTS OF 2005 republican equality and a destiny of succession of riots partially resulted unemployment. […] All they dream from acts of emulation, which were about is having money so that they propitiated by mass media coverage can consume like everyone else” throughout neighborhoods and cities: (Bouzour, 2005). “let’s get on TV with more fires.” The lack of criminal records Thirty-two percent of detainees only among the riots’ detainees invalidates had primary education and many the notion that these revolts were the were failing at school, which, in result of gang wars over drug turn, explains their lack of educational territory. The religious factor does not expectations. Those who were not explain them either, as the violence students and were held for trial had did not have any sort of Muslim precarious and badly paid jobs: errand component (Wieviorka, op.cit.); in boys, carriers, movers, bakers, etc. fact, some Muslim associations tried (Jeremie, 2006). In short, they were to create protection militias, which part of the sub-proletariat. were repudiated by the rioters. The According to a 2006 survey carried same happened with left-wing out by sociologist H. Lagrange, the organizations, which had nothing to neighborhoods that experienced the do with the riots, did not foresee most violence during the riots shared them, and did not understand them. the same main characteristics: This can partially explain the lack of a political agenda in a movement where • A high unemployment rate among the only demand ever (and only the young. occasionally) voiced was the removal • A high underage population; chil- of Sarkozy. This would also explain dren and teenagers could comprise the absence of any sort of social more than 35 percent of the popula- utopia or networks with other popular tion. sectors. In any case, the targets of the • A very high rate of large families (over 6 people per family, especially rioters’ attacks leave little doubt among immigrants from Sub-Saharan about the fact that their demands and Africa, who have many children and ire were directed at the state. little money). This can lead to very The sociodemographic and serious family problems, and 83 per- socioeconomic profile of these youths cent of the rioters lived in small wel- sheds light on the nature of their fare apartments: “They live on top of movement: 50 percent of detainees each other; when they grow up they were underage, averaging between 14 have problems with their siblings. and 22 years of age—some were Family income is quite reduced and merely 11. This explains, for example, there is no money left for entertain- the ludic character of the fires, which ment (M. Lahtifi, educator, 2005). Ac- were set by unemployed teenagers cording to Lagrange, this explosive with no access to recreational combination is the most significant activities. It also shows that the variable.

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• These are poor neighborhoods in another member of the group is rich cities, and the youths resent the subjected to abuse or injustice. This social contrasts they face on a daily violence can act as a cathartic tool basis. that tears the individual away from a • The housing complexes are ex- daily state of passivity and alienation tremely deteriorated and waiting to and can lead to a subjectivation be demolished. process that, stemming from a • Black youths were overrepresented spontaneous feeling of solidarity, among the rioting population, a could become the first step toward factor that could be linked to the civic, cultural, sportive, or political problems caused by large families liv- participation on the one hand, and ing in small spaces (Lagrange, Le Monde, 2006). delinquency and antisocial behavior on the other (Wieviorka, 2005). These riots, however, can also be seen a pre-political and anti- CONCLUSIONS authoritarian (rather than anti-capitalist) revolt that seeks The 2005 riots can be seen as an recognition, equal opportunities, and explosion of irrational rage involving respect for difference in a society and psychological mechanisms of “stigma state that exclude and humiliate their retrieval” (Morice, op. cit.), a process bastard children after having exploited where the victims of discrimination and marginalized their parents. The adopt the characteristics of the violence enacted by these marginal ascribed stigma and use them as a subjects represents both protection form of vindication (e.g., those and freedom, at least for a while. “The classified as violent gang members violence of the subject is located in become more violent, those the lacks, the gaps, the decomposition disparaged as native or black proclaim of societal complexes on all levels, their indigenous character or their from the local to the global” blackness). This mechanism was (Wieviorka, 2005). analyzed by Frantz Fanon in his treatise on colonialism, The Wretched of the Earth. BIBLIOGRAPHY Another possible interpretation is that provided by Wieviorka, who BATAILLE, Philippe (1999), “Racisme insti- refers to floating subjects that cannot tutionnel, racisme cultural et discrim- quite become actors and insert inations,” Immigration et intégration: themselves into a social, political, or l’état des saviors, Paris, Edit. Dewitte, intercultural relationship because they La Découverte. feel rejected and unrecognized as BODY-GENDROT, Sophie (1999), “Ghetto, subjects. This can lead to angry and mythes et réalités,” Immigration et In- destructive or self-destructive tegration: l’état des saviors, Paris, Edit. behaviors when an individual or Dewitte, La Découverte.

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voirs, Paris, Edit. Dewitte, La Décou- (2006), Interview, Mexico, verte. Departamento de Sociología, RINCÓN GALLARDO, Gilberto (2005), “En- UAM-Azcapotzalco, October 20. señanza francesa,” Mexico, Reforma, WIHTOL DE WENDEN, Catherine (1999), “Les November 12. jeunes issus de l’immigration entre TODD, Emmanuel (1994), Le destin des im- intégration culturelle et exclusion migrés, Paris, Seuil. sociale,” Immigration et Intégration : TRIBALAT, Michele (1999), “Définir, quanti- l’état des saviors, Paris, Edit. Dewitte, fier, sérier les mécanismes d’intégra- La Découverte. tion,” Immigration et Intégration: l’état ZEHRAOUI, Ahsene (1999), “Les Algériens, des savoirs, Paris, Edit. Dewitte, La Dé- de la migration a l’installation,” couverte. Immigration et Intégration : l’état WIEVIORKA, Michel (2005), La Violence, des saviors, Paris, Edit. Dewitte, Paris, Hachette Littératures, Pluriel. La Découverte.

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