I have held back commentary on the race riots in France because I have been trying to formulate the right response. Fortunately for me, a number of newspaper editorials and opinions already have appeared to explain the riots. The Star Tribune has a racial/ethnic slant on it, while the NYTimes recently published an underclass perspective on it. However, it seems to be a bit of both and other larger socio-political forces at work.
"You're French on your identity card, French to pay taxes and to go into the army, but for the rest, you're an Arab," said Hassan Marouni, 38, who came to France from his native Morocco with his parents 30 years ago. He said he had only been able to find temporary factory jobs and is currently unemployed. [Excerpt taken from NYTimes]
Today, France announced that it will deport all foreigners arrested/convicted of rioting (see NYTimes). This latest government tactic strikes me as the wrong approach. It will only further alienate people who are rioting in part because they feel alienated from society. It may temporarily quell the riot but it will only add more fire to the situation in the long run.
Perhaps a better answer is found in a small town in France called Tourcoing.
[T]he town's Mayor, Jean Pierre Balduyck, admits that the French Republic is "shaken and unhappy". "It is a failure of the Republic - and it needs to be judged on its ability to analyse that failure and find a response," he says. "There's no dialogue. People don't respect each other. It's the result of exclusion and incomprehension." [Excerpt taken from the BBC online]
The BBC story hints at what things need to be done to make amends, such as finding common ground, working toward superordinate goals, creating dialogue among equals...hm...strikingly like the intergroup contact hypothesis that I mentioned in my earlier post today.
Posted by richlee at November 9, 2005 03:11 PM