NBC: In France, a melting pot melts down

Don Teague Correspondent • Profile

PARIS — The riots that have have raged in France for 11 days have laid bare long-simmering problems related to the burgeoning immigrant population from many former French colonies in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

Many of those immigrants and their French-born children have never been fully integrated into French society and have suffered from racial discrimination, high unemployment and poor housing.

The unrest spread to 274 towns across the country on Sunday night into Monday, according to French police, and claimed its first fatality when a man injured several days ago succumbed to his wounds.

NBC News' Don Teague tells how the government and ordinary French people are reacting to the crisis.  

The violent riots that began in the suburbs of Paris and have spread to the rest of the country — and even into the heart of Paris, in the historic Marais district — have mostly been conducted by the children of North African and sub-Saharan immigrants. How do the riots reflect the bigger issues and problems of integrating immigrants in France that have been going on for years?
Well, that’s exactly the problem. Despite the fact that these youths were born in this country and are French citizens — they vote and pay taxes — they are not considered to be fully French, in the eyes of many other French citizens.

What the rioters have pointed out is that there are very few immigrants in government positions, and that there are very few immigrants are given the same job opportunities that are available to other French people.

INTERACTIVE Unrest in France Click here for a time line of events and a map of where the unrest is occurring.

For example, I interviewed a young man two days ago who has a good job, but despite the fact that he can afford to rent in apartment in Paris, cannot. When he tried to do so, “vacancies” suddenly became “no vacancies” and landlords wouldn’t rent to him.  

So he lives in one of these suburban housing projects, which is similar to what we would think of as a welfare project in the U.S., despite the fact that he has a decent job and a car.  He is just not allowed, in his view, to fully become a part of French society.

With the violence starting to really hit home — now that it is coming into Paris and other cities around France rather than a few suburbs — how much are regular French people starting to discuss the underlying issues that are causing the riots?
Well, of course, they’ve been following the riots closely. The government itself has pledged to make changes to be more inclusive and come up with a plan by the end of the month to help address the concerns of the immigrant families.

Your typical French person on the streets is talking about these issues, but in some ways they are talking about things from a position of fear now. Especially in Paris, now that these issues have hit the city center, if they tried to ignore it before, they can’t ignore it any longer.

We spoke with shopkeepers last night who are concerned that the unrest may drive tourists away. On the other hand, we also spoke to some American tourists who said that they are not going to cut their trips short, but they are going to start being much more careful about where they go and what they do.  

The government has said that they are going to address the underlying problems of discrimination and high unemployment. Any idea what they might do?
They have released no concrete plans yet, but they have pledged to release a plan by the end of this month that will address many of the concerns that the immigrants and second-generation immigrants are facing.

No one is denying that major problems exist, especially the unemployment problem, which is measurable and very high.  President Chirac has acknowledged that unemployment is a huge problem and that it even runs as high as 40 percent in some suburban neighborhoods, four times the national average.  

Chirac also reportedly acknowledged in private conversations with the Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga on Monday that France has failed to fully integrate the French-born children of Arab and black African immigrants who have been taking part in the violence.

MORE FROM EUROPE

Europe Section Front

Pope breaks wrist after slipping in bath Belgian museum exposes celebrity underpants 2nd worker dies after Madonna tour accident Police: Priest slain in Russia solicited gay sex Pedophile check riles U.K. kids' authors Europe Section Front   Add Europe headlines to your news reader: