The 2006 Riots in France: Problems and Areas of Promise - Research Proposal Example

The 2006 Riots in France: Problems and areas of Promise. Table of Contents Abstract: 3 Introduction 4 Discussion 5 1 .0 Background to the Riots 5 1.1 Modern France 6 1.2 History of Immigration 6 1.3 Controversial Laws: Misguided Policy or Enlightened Law 7 Conclusions: 10 2.1 Recommendations. 11 2.1 12 2.2 12 2.3 12 2.4 12 2.5 12 Bibliography 14 Abstract: The riots that occurred in 2006 in France brought the world's attention to the problems of France's disenfranchised immigrant population. There are many factors at play here. The policies that French Governement has implemented in regard to its immigrants population have not been as unenlightened as they appear. The problem is not in the understanding of the problem but rather of political will. The problems and positive directions are explored. Introduction The two week long rioting that took place in France in 2006 presented a different picture of the French Republic to the world. The ideas of Equality and Justice that form the bedrock of France's founding principles were temporarily suspended. A new image came in its place and the world saw different images of France: stark images of Muslim youth, setting fire to cars, protesting the inequities of access to the job market. From the aftermath of these riots there was a new understanding that riots were a protest of immigrant youth excluded from easy acess to employment through systemic problems. The president of France, Jacques Chirac issued a speech where he showed an understanding of the difficulties facing new immigrants, but at the same time he offered a stern warning that the country was based on the secular values of the rule of law, and the use of violence was not a solution to be entertained. ”Mr Chirac said the wave of violence had highlighted a "deep malaise" within French society. (Article from BBC news on President Chirac's speech on riots in France. 2005) ) What is the true picture?. Is France, indeed, a country rife with racial and class distinctions or are there other factors at play here. This report, will examine, the broad factors at existing in the prelude to the riots and seek to determine whether France is on the right to path to dealing with the divisions within its own society, or if the riots are a sign of worse things to come. It is important to examine the situation, because the problems in France will be at issue in other countries throughout the world. Changing demographic patterns require immigration from developing nations whose inhabitants are not accustomed to the traditions of the West and therefore will require programs that will help in the adjustment to the laws of their new countries. This report, will rely on six documents to cover a broad gamut of contextual information regarding the problems of immigration, poverty and disenfranchisement, and the institutional steps to eradicate the problem and further the challenges which they face. The past is prologue to the present, as they say, and so this report will employ an historical perspective to the discussion, and then it will outline the steps that have been taken up to now to both alleviate the problem and the structural changes that will need to be made to reduce potential problems in the future. Discussion 1 .0 Background to the Riots 1.1 Modern France France today is a multicultural society. It is an advanced Western society with a population of 61 million people. It is a constitutional democracy where the people vote for president. It is based in common law and has a long tradition of fairness and justice. Its economy grows at 2.1% and it is a prominent part of a Economic Union.(US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices in France (February, 2005)) Like many countries across Europe. Its population is ageing, and so it relies on immigrants to sustain its growth. 1.2 History of Immigration There have been different patterns of imigration to France in its history in the last century. Early patterns of immigration were not met with resistance from the native population,and assimilation into the new society was smooth and uncomplicated for new immigrants. Indeed, French immigrants have contributed greatly to the French Republic. Marie Curie twice winner of the Nobel prize for Medicine was a Polish immigrant.(Nair, 2000) The pattern changed somewhat in the 70s, when the country saw a recession and immigrants for the first time were faced with unemployment in the supposed land of promise. Rioting did not occur at this time. At the present time, the principal reason cited for the recent rioting was the chronic high unemployment rate among immigrant youth. Unemployed and disaffected, seemingly marginalized from the mainstream prosperity of French society large groups of immigrant youth apparently went on a rampage. What were the other factors at play? 1.3 Controversial Laws: Misguided Policy or Enlightened Law France also came to worldwide attention in regard to its immigrant population due a controversial law banning the wearing of head scarves in public schools. There might be a popular perreception that this restriction of freedoms played no small role in inciting the riots. This, however, would be a mistaken perception. In a well-written essay, Patrick Weil one of the planners of the head scarf law explained in detail the painstaking steps that were taken before implementing the law. The problem, the large committee of which Weil was but one member revealed was that the majority of young girls in public schools did not wish to wear a headscarf themselves but simply were forced to do so from peer pressure. The law was, in a way, the state taking responsibility for challenging the rigid social convention of traditional culture to wear a headscarf and therefore encouraging secular values among the youth. This was a successful outcome of challenging obstructionist elements in society that prevented assimilation. Making this a national policy, reduced infrastructural problems of competition within various subcommittees arguing over internal issues and internal divisions resulting in no resolution .(Weil, 2005) Weil thought the problem was not with the head scarf law but that there were many more recommendations that were made by this committee that were largely ignored by the government. These recomendations will be addressed later France has prided itself on being a secular nation . The law that enshrined secularity was passed in 1905; it was implemented to curb the powers of the Catholic Church at the time. It was a way to separate the public and religious sphere. This law in no way trampled on the rights and freedoms of religious practice but wished to allow the freedom of expression, by insuring secular values. The secular outlook is the bedrock of the French Republic. It is one of its greatest gifts to this society. Such Secularity has ensured a measure of tolerance within the society. This is not to say that reactionary movements do not exist in the country . The leader of the prominent right wing party strongly opposes immigration. Francois Le Pen the leader of the right wing Nationalist party, used the rioting to sow the seeds of discord, in order to advance his own political agenda. While Le Pen can be dismissed as a hate monger he does receive some support. The vast of a majority of French people, however, how have an open attitude toward new immigrants; evidence of this will be elaborated in the final recommendations. The influence of the hard-line party however, has left its influence on national policy towards immigrants. Journalist Sylivia Zappi reported that there were changes made to the rules of Citizenship in 2003 to enforce stricter requirements for citizenship, requirements that required evidence of assimilation to French values. These requirements enforced a probationary period during which the new arrival had to prove that he had indeed assimilated before recognition of his citizenship could be made.( Zappi, 2003) This may have seemed to be a hard measure but on the face of it was not without reason, if for no other, than the fact that it removed the responsibility that many immigrants felt to adopt some of the more restrictive values of their previous culture, most notably in the treatment of women. While policies such as those Zappi described may seem cold and arrived at by an impersonal administration that has decidedly not been the case. The French government has been conscientious about proceeding in ways in which to alleviate the problems of poverty, which in large measure contributed to the social unrest among the new immigrant population. Two organizations in particular, the National Observatory on Poverty and Social Exclusion French non-profit organizations are taking a systematic approach using a committee consensus from panels of experts from all areas that could possibly represent the problem and have undertaken to examine the problem from all possible vantage points. These recommendations will be referred to in the the recommendations section of this report. 2. Conclusions: The Rioting in France in 2006 signified some deep fissures in French Society. Despite the the ostensible principles of Equality in French society the doors to prosperity within its borders have been largely closed to many new immigrants from other parts of the world. France can no longer seek to ignore the problems that the riots revealed about the state of inequity in the country. There is the option that Le Pen presents with his strident messages of xenophobia but to entertain his suggestions for the sake of argument they still remain unfeasible on many levels. The sheer numbers of immigrant populations in France rule against any policy of removal or restriction . France is a multicultural nation no matter how men like Le Pen seek to view the situation . Also, Le Pen's reactionary thinking ignores the vital need for immigrants in the shrinking demographic of Modern France. 2.1 Recommendations. The scope of the problem can be defined In two definite ways: . 2.1 There is a conflict between old world values and the new values of the Republic and the goal is to instill approaches in which you emigrants can enjoy the privileges of freedoms the Republic has their guaranteed to its citizens, without the peer disapproval that is inevitably present within traditional communities. 2.2 The other other problem relates to the barriers to employment within French society. Chronic unemployment fosters a sense of alienation within communities. How should the problems then be broached ? In regard to the assimilation of French values there is not a need for draconian changes. 2.3 The state has been attempt ing to take responsibility for enforcing secularity, and therefore alleviating the pressure on immigrant individuals from being coerced to adopt other values in the face of community censure. 2.4 The other way, which France has enforced its values on you emigrants is by making it a requirement to receiving citizenship. While this may seem to put undue stress on new imigrants and may seem to be politically incorrect it again should be seen as an incentive since it frees individuals from the culture an inertia present in their own communities. 2.5 The logistics of enforcing changes in policy have been taken on admirably by the National Observatory on Poverty and Social Exclusion. This organization is taking on a systematic approach to the problem employing the collection of vast amounts of data through reputable statistical agencies such as the National Council for Statistical information. The most compelling questions they raise relate to the difficulty in gathering accurate information about the poor when they cannot be stably be accounted for, that is to say they are mobile because of the need to move driven by economic circumstance. The nation wide organisation certainly needs more liberty to place its recommendations in an executive way. Patrick Weil addressed this problem when he stated that only one of the 28 changes that his committee recommended was undertaken by the government and that was the head scarf law. This committee called for greater recognition of the diversity that exists within France. They called for more places of worship of other cultures bea allowed to be built to recognise and instil a sense of confidence in immigrants that their culture is respected.This committee also argued that France recognise the religious holidays of other cultures, something that as many as 40 % of the public supported ( Weil, 2005) The French government is on the right path to correcting its infrastructural problems but huge barriers remain. The events in 2006 brought those out into light and for this reason they have served a purpose in providing some impetus to the pace of reform. Bibliography Chirac, Jacques"Chirac in new pledge to end riots". Article from BBC news on President Chirac's speech on riots in France. (15/11/05) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4437206.stm Chirac in new pledge to end riots France's National Observatory on Poverty & Social Exclusion Report (in English) on the work of the Observatoire national de la pauvreté et de l'exclusion socia Nair, Sami . "The Challenges of Immigration" Interview with Sami Nair from Label France magazine, January 2000. http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/label_france/English/DOSSIER/2000/07immigration.html What does it mean to be French at the dawn of the 21st century? “Report on Human Rights Practices in France” US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices in France (February, 2005). http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41681.htm France Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2004 Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor February 28, 2005 Weil,Patrick "A nation in diversity: France, Muslims and the headscarf" Article by (25/3/05) on the banning of headscarves and other religious symbols in schools in France. http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-5-57-1811.jsp A nation in diversity: France, Muslims and the headscarf Patrick Weil 25 - 3 – 2004. Zappi, Sylvia "French Government Revives Assimilation Policy" Article on the French government's assimilation policy for integrating immigrants (by the Migration Policy Institute, October 2003). http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?ID=165 French Government Revives Assimilation Policy By October 1, 2003 Read More