Sarkozy and de Villepin Fiddle While Paris Burns

For the past week, rioters have held off the police in the northeastern suburbs of Paris. Wednesday night, more than 150 vehicles were torched, shots have been fired at the security people, and three dozen or so have been arrested. After such urban violence, the government remains divided on a response between two men who want to be president. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin wants to avoid stigmatizing the housing estates (les cités), while Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has called for “industrial cleansing” of the estates.

Officially, France has always insisted that immigrants become French entirely. This is distinct from the American melting pot approach (terribly flawed though it is) which allows immigrants to add their particular seasoning to the cultural stew – thus, everyone is Irish on March 17, Cinco de Mayo is becoming a second-tier holiday, and despite everything, there is no official language. Not so in France where the change into a Frenchman is expected to be absolute.

Short-term, a restoration of some kind of order is needed in the suburbs (unlike the Americans, the French put the poor immigrants on the edges of their cities, not in the middle). The use of force needs to be measured and responsible, but it appears to be necessary as well. The government needs the help of the Islamic religious leaders as well, since most of 5 million Muslims in France live in places like Clichy-sous-Bois.

In the long run, though, the French must reconsider their approach to the “immigrant” population, many of whom are the grandchildren of people from other cultures but who were born in France themselves. Racism in France is very real, and while Alain may have a reasonably bright future, Ali has to deal with a great deal more. The political success of the National Front in the last 30 years says more about the attitude of many of the “natives” than anything else could.

The problem with the French approach to integration is that the larger society needs to allow “immigrants” to assimilate. The Guardian quoted a social worker in Val-Fourré, one of France's most notorious sink estates west of Paris where unemployment is around 50%, as saying, “We need to reverse 30 years of injustice and discrimination. We need to make insertion and integration for everyone as basic and fundamental a right as reading and writing and counting. Otherwise we're heading for meltdown.”

Meanwhile, Messrs. Sarkozy, de Villepin and Chirac are fiddling while Paris burns.



© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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