the french autumn riots of 2005 and the crisis of republican integration

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FRANCIS MESTRIESadvanced in the world, already showsa big deficit in the pension and healthcoverage areas due to the ageing of thepopulation and their anticipatedretirement. The courts are backloggedwith trials, disarmed in the face ofdelinquents who are too young to goto jail and whom the system does notknow how to handle. The police lacksufficient resources to fight growingcrime, and families disintegrate asparents divorce, the gap betweenparents and children increases, andmonoparental households becomeincreasingly common. Nationalcultural integration is threatened bythe growing U.S. influence and thecommunal seclusion of ethnicminorities, who feel discriminatedagainst and seek to reaffirm theiridentity through religious conversion.This is the case of some Muslimcommunities whose religiousapproach sometimes takes an integristor political stance as a form of protest.On the other hand, racistattitudes and xenophobic politicalopinions boost the popularity of theFront National and other right-wingparties:The French Republic was the integrationmachine; when it broke down,all of its pieces stopped working atonce: the army, the family, and theschool system, which were the elementsthat passed on patriotic culture.The same thing happened to thechurch, the political parties, and theunions. Rule of law cannot existwithout common values, since citizensidentify with their fellowsthrough models that do not currentlyexist. This is why unconscious, religious,or ethnically-based identitiessurpass the feeling of republican citizenship.… Vertigo and anarchic revoltsare an expression of frustration(Debray, 2005, quoted in Cruz Zamorano,2006).And yet, the children of NorthAfrican immigrants did try tointegrate into French culture: manymarried native French citizens andwere institutionally incorporated. TheFrench naturalization policies (whichprivilege jus soli over the blood rightsstill recognized in Germany) and thewelcoming refugee programs werequite benevolent during the 1980s.Schools opened up to immigrants andtried to cater to their needs, but as thenation went into economic recessionand unemployment grew, the childrenof immigrants were subjected togrowing racism and became “secondclass citizens: France has not beenable to integrate them, neithersocially, politically, or economically”(Cruz Zamorano, ibid). These newFrench generations have been thevictims of latent racism on all fronts:the educational system (the ban onveils in schools), the cultural space(discrimination in the private laborsector), housing (limited access toliving quarters), and political racism(racist attacks and hate crimes;Bataille, 1999).Lacking a cohesive familystructure and human and parentalmonetary capital, most of them areunable to incorporate themselves intothe normative structures of the126SECOND SEMESTER 2007MIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO
THE FRENCH AUTUMN RIOTS OF 2005middle class and are “assimilateddownwards” (Portes and De Wind,2006). They are also unable to join thetransnational ethnic networks thatprovide youths with family andcommunal support, maintain culturalvalues and behaviors belonging to thecountry of origin, and create ethniclabor markets through which theycould attain a modicum of economicwealth (García Borrego, 2006). In fact,most of them have been acculturated.[According to Le Monde, in 1995]only 24 percent of children born toAlgerian parents speak their parentslanguage and only 14 per cent werepracticing Muslims, while 50 percentof Algerian children born in Francehad had their first relationship withnative French (Le Monde, 1995).Nevertheless, in the banlieues, thisacculturation has not resulted in acomplete adoption of French culture,which is considered “second class.”There, youths cultivate an“Americanized culture, that of hiphop’s gangsta rap: they wear the sameclothes, use the same gestures, playthe same videogames, listen to thesame music, and organize in gangsthat are similar to those in the UnitedStates” (Castaingts, op. cit.). In fact,they are pushed toward a culture ofviolence.The great trap and paradoxinvolving the children of Africanimmigrants is that, even whenan individual integrates and becomesacculturated, “French society will stillconsider him inferior because he isdifferent, but he has already cut histies to his group of origin. He isdoubly guilty of treason: he is part ofhis group of origin without reallybelonging to it, and he is part of thereceiving society without reallybelong to it” (Lapeyronnie, 1999).These youths find discriminationmore difficult to bear than theirparents because they were born inFrance and no longer have ties toanother place of origin; they cannottake refuge in their roots (ibid) and, inresponse, try to build an identity thatexacerbates their difference. This,for example, is the case with radicalMuslims whose identity is based ontheir problematic experiences in thereceiving society and acts as a demandfor recognition (ibid). Ultimately,these approaches lead to clashes withpolice, reverse racism, and streetviolence.POLITICAL BACKGROUNDAND CAUSES OF THE RIOTSThe Parisian suburbs used to be thecapital’s “red belt,” the area where theParti Communiste Français (theFrench Communist Party, or PCF) hadsocial and political control. But,starting in the 1980s, the party grewso weak that it almost disappearedfrom the region, leaving a largeorganizational gap and a scarcity ofsocial and housing policies. A largepart of the PCF’s base moved to theFront National, inaugurating thedivision between the native andnaturalized French proletariats.During the 1980s, the frustrationand belligerence latent among the2007 SECOND SEMESTERMIGRACIÓN Y DESARROLLO127
Page 6 and 7: FRANCIS MESTRIESliberty, and equali
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Page 16 and 17: FRANCIS MESTRIESBOILS, Guillermo (2

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