HOOLIGANS HOOLIGANS OR VICTIMS OF "SOCIAL GHETTOS"?

These are only a few examples of unrest initiated by youths from so-called "problem areas" of major French cities. They are mainly immigrants' children. For example, the brawl in the metro in March this year occurred because a passenger who did not have a ticket - a young man from Maghrib (this name was given by medieval Arab geographers and historians to countries west of Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula) hit controllers who tried to stop him. In turn, his friends claimed that the security services had been rude with the young man. The causes of the mass disturbances in Clichy-sous-Bois in 2005 and Villiers-le-Bel are almost similar. For example, two years ago everything started after two Arab teenagers, who were chased by the police on suspicion of a minor offence, entered a transformer vault and were electrocuted. The teenagers' relatives blamed the accident on the police. The cause of the unrest in Villiers-le-Bel was also the death of two 15 and 16 year old teenagers (Moroccan and Senegalese) in a traffic accident. The young men crashed into a police car at a high speed on a stolen bike. According to their relatives, the police officers left the site of the accident without helping the dying young men.

Politicians and experts in France and elsewhere (since this problem is also in place in other countries) are now arguing what the unrest initiated by immigrant youth should be called - "hooliganism" or "fair wrath" that has social roots, or maybe "terrorism".

Any of these definitions can be applied to the unrest in areas populated by immigrants. At the same time, we should not forget that "any definition" and measures aimed at preventing this in the future will have the most serious consequences. Of course, it is worth investigating their causes.

Le Monde wrote on 29 November that the reason for such an upsurge is "unemployment, poverty and crime". There has even appeared a new definition for areas populated by immigrants - "social ghettos". Local observers, experts and eyewitnesses maintain that most of them have their own laws - they are ruled by the shadow economy, drug dealing, crime and so on. It is very difficult to get out of this "captivity". For this reason, the establishment of relative calm in the streets of Villiers-le-Bel does not mean that everything is fine. Anger is still smouldering in other suburban areas as well, which means that the situation might get out of hand again at any moment. Now the French authorities and especially, President Sarkozy need to separate the wheat from the chaff especially carefully. One mistake and the situation might get out of hand.

It is important to understand why the suburban areas populated by immigrants are called "dangerous areas". How did they turn into "social ghettos"? For example, 80 per cent of the 27,000 people living in Villiers-le-Bel are originally from the Middle East and North Africa, 40 per cent are below 25 and 40 per cent have no job at all. The town lacks schools, there are almost no manufacturers here and the infrastructure is in a poor condition. Transport problems are especially serious. For this reason, it is not surprising that for many young people, life in places like Villiers-le-Bel is a kind of sentence. Often, independent experts who have visited France confidently say that native French people themselves often give immigrants no chance to become full citizens. They are more often discriminated against while applying for a job. A poll conducted by The Guardian last summer showed that three of four French companies prefer employing white people rather than coloureds. Sometimes it is difficult to make your way in life even though you have good "starting capital" like a good education or well-off family. It is even worse if you have the "wrong" skin colour, the "wrong" religion and the wrong "name" and have grown up in a "social ghetto"?

But it would be absolutely wrong to blame everything on the French authorities alone. First, there is a very high number of illegal immigrants in the country - according to some estimations, they number 400,000. The French authorities are not obliged to employ them. Things have reached such a point that the French Senate has approved a draft law that allows the authorities to carry out DNA tests of immigrants who want to settle in the country in order to unite with their families. Apart from proving their relationship with citizens living in the country, those who wish to settle in France will have to sit a test in their home country to define the level of their French and knowledge of French culture and to produce evidence that their relatives living in France guarantee their living and employment. The law on the DNA test for immigrants has already been adopted in 12 countries of the European Union. In France, this rule was introduced after Nicolas Sarkozy came to power. Incidentally, Sarkozy himself is a descendant of immigrants (his father came to France in the 1940s from Hungary, while his mother's father was a Jew from Thessaloniki, Greece). Almost one third of people living in France cannot call themselves 100 per cent French. It is not surprising since the country has a large colonial past. Moreover, the French government has always been famed for sheltering people who could not live in their home countries for this or that reason.

However, not all immigrants are going to become French. Many of them do not speak French and live in their own communities and by their own rules. They are friends only with each other, visit only each other, celebrate only their own holidays and what is more important, also marry only their own people. Their moral and cultural values are usually very far from European ones. What unites them with France is at best French citizenship or permission to live in France. The development of modern communications has played a "bad trick" on the host country. If 20 years ago immigrants could maintain links with their home country only by telephone, now there is the Internet, satellite television, mobile phones and CDs and DVDs with films and music from their home country. According to experts, sometimes even the fourth generation of immigrants does not integrate into the local population. What's more, in their "historical homeland", they will also be regarded as aliens.

A poll published by Le Figaro last year showed that more than half of native French people think that those who do not love France and are not going to become French must leave the country. Incidentally, in his election campaign Nicolas Sarkozy made skilful use of this idea proposed by nationalist Le Pen a long time ago. But the problem still persists. If in 2005 most of the attacks were made on administrative buildings, this time it was the police and journalists that were attacked. Statements have been made that the law-enforcement agencies have encountered "real urban guerrillas" outside Paris. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon called the participants in the unrest "criminals". French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said that in his opinion, the unrest was well-planned.

It must be remembered that the unrest in Villiers-le-Bel coincided with a large strike by transport workers in Paris which paralyzed the capital, compelled the French to use bicycles and caused damage worth millions. As is known, the strike started in protest against the government's plans to repeal "special pension schemes" (they provide for the right to retire 2.5 years earlier than other workers). At the same time, many teachers, officials, doctors, energy workers, employees of the postal service, banks and airports are still demanding a pay rise. Students have also launched strikes against education reforms. They do not like the idea that universities may be granted the right to get money from private sponsors. There are fears that this might lead to violations of the law and introduction of education fees. The well-known Sorbonne University was even temporarily closed in November.

In this situation, the problems of immigrant areas look even more noticeable. And all this becomes a subject of heated political debate, of course. For example, the opposition Socialist Party is more and more actively accusing the ruling right-wing conservative faction of failure to carry out any of the promised programmes on the social integration of youth from immigrant families over the last two years. In turn, nationalists urge Sarkozy to produce evidence of the tough measures he had promised.

Indeed, both in autumn 2005 and autumn 2007, the main character "on the other side of barricades" from the rebellious teenagers was Nicolas Sarkozy - first as interior minister and then as French president. The news of unrest in Villiers-le-Bel came during his visit to China, which is why the head of state hurried to cut short his visit in order to take the situation under personal control. On arrival in Paris, the president held an emergency meeting with ministers. Then he, the prime minister and the interior minister addressed hundreds of French police officers. Moreover, the head of state had a meeting with the mayor of Villiers-le-Bel, visited a hospital where injured policemen were receiving treatment and spoke to the relatives of killed teenagers. The French leader clearly identified his position: the Elysee Palace will not make a compromise and the initiators of the unrest will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. During his address to police officers, the president explained that he does not tend to look on "every criminal as a victim of society and every pogrom as a social problem". "What happened in Villiers-le-Bel has nothing to do with a social crisis. This is a 100 per cent manifestation of hooliganocracy. The young rascals will not avoid punishment, recidivists must be punished. By summer we will adopt a relevant law and it will be clear to everyone that they cannot avoid imprisonment," Nicolas Sarkozy said. The law-enforcement agencies have already been ordered to carry out systematic operations to seize weapons in the suburbs of Paris. The president also said that the police officers involved in the death of two teenagers in Villiers-le-Bel will be punished as well.

In this regard, experts and observers pointed out that Sarkozy's experience gained during the unrest of 2005 came in handy. As an interior minister who had set his sights on the presidency, he treated the participants in the pogroms without ceremony. But in any case, it took three weeks to take control of the situation on the outskirts of French cities two years ago. Cars were set on fire all over the country and there was talk that the problem had taken on a national scale. This time Sarkozy did not allow such talk - the pogroms were stopped in quite a short time. Now everything will depend on whether the French authorities are able to keep their angry promises.

However, this is not the only difference between the two situations. Sarkozy admitted that social problems do exist as does "immigration that was not controlled for many years and the ghettos created by people who failed to integrate into society". This is proved by the president's promise to present a special plan for residents of immigrant areas. Sarkozy also said that increasing living standards in the suburban areas is the priority of domestic policy which will now "be nicer to those who want to get an education and a job, have a family and a house and tougher with those who only want to poison the life of people around them". It must be noted that experienced Sarkozy has descendants of Maghrib origin in his government. Fadela Amara, the former leader of the organization of Arab women and now state secretary for urban policy, is the authorities' mouthpiece in talks with the rebel leaders.

Nevertheless, there are many people who doubt that the measures taken by Nicolas Sarkozy will be really successful. For the time being, the French people's trust in their president is shrinking. Recently, an initiative group urged the media to follow the suit of the recent "day without cigarettes" and announce "a day without Sarkozy" when all information about the president and from the president should be ignored.

Several days after the end of the unrest in Villiers-le-Bel, about 30 young people, including those who took part in the pogroms, sent an open letter to the president. The letter says that it is not they who are hooligans, but those who do not treat them as "children of France" and who cannot attract "good teachers to the suburbs". In any case, Nicolas Sarkozy will have to solve the problem of immigrant areas with the help of a "new Marshall Plan" and tough measures or concessions... The more time passes in inaction, the more problems there are. The flame of unrest is smouldering. As long as this continues, public order in France is in danger, as is the political career of Sarkozy himself.