Posted on 07/21/2008 12:01:57 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
The street market in Saint-Denis is only a few minutes from the Champs Elysees by metro, but it feels more like north Africa than a northern suburb of Paris.
A market at St-Denis Not a million miles away - the multicultural Paris suburb of St-Denis
Amid a crowd of shoppers, almost all of Arab or African origin, a man in a white robe collects money for a mosque in the nearby suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois - one of the immigrant areas where youths burned cars and battled police during unrest in 2005.
Arab music blares from a music stall. Next to it, brightly patterned African fabrics hang from an awning.
Many of the people here are French citizens but they feel shut out of the mainstream of French society.
A major grievance during the riots three years ago was the discrimination young people of Arab and African origin said they faced in getting jobs.
Diversity campaign
But now the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy says things have improved - and French companies are hiring more people from deprived neighbourhoods like Saint-Denis, especially young graduates.
"There's a real dynamic which has begun on the issue of hiring young people from poor areas or from ethnic minorities," says the Minister for Urban Affairs, Fadela Amara, who herself grew up in a mainly immigrant suburb.
"There's a real campaign to promote diversity," she told me.
"Large companies have discovered that young people from these areas offer genuine potential. And this isn't philanthropy, it's just good business.
"They know that those who have degrees have had to work very hard to get them, twice as hard as those who don't live in neighbourhoods where there are problems, so they're extremely competitive on the job market."
But when I put this to people in Saint-Denis market, they say little has changed as far as they can see.
Tolerance
A young woman wearing a purple headscarf and carrying a university textbook said France does not tolerate religious diversity.
"Muslims, especially women like me who wear headscarves, are less likely to get jobs even if they've got a good degree," she said.
Fatou Fall When the owner learned that I was Senegalese, he decided that he didn't want me Fatou Fall, management assistant And activists campaigning for equal opportunities say there has not been a breakthrough.
"You can't really measure any progress yet because we're still at the very beginning," said Carole da Silva, head of an organisation which helps minority graduates find jobs.
"This issue generates a lot of debate, a lot of passion, but the public are only concerned with this problem from time to time - and you can't talk about a phenomenal success or say the situation has been turned around."
In Evry, south of Paris, I met Fatou Fall, a management assistant in a communications company.
She manages the company's budget and considers herself fortunate to have a good job which she enjoys doing.
But she says getting it was not easy - and when she was looking for a job, she says she sometimes faced blatant discrimination.
"Once I applied for a job in a travel agency and the manager was very pleased with me," she said.
"He wanted to hire me, but when the owner - his father - learned that I was Senegalese, he decided that he didn't want me - and the manager told me that it was because his father was older and he didn't get on well with foreigners."
'Racist and hypocritical'
But Ms Fall agrees that there has been progress under the Sarkozy government and she praises the work of the Urban Affairs Minister, Ms Amara.
Ms Fall found her current job with the help of Karim Zeribi, who advises the chairman of French railway network SNCF on equal opportunities.
Karim Zeribi France does not need quotas or affirmative action, says Mr Zeribi
France has the largest Muslim community in Europe and substantial numbers of French people have African and Caribbean roots.
Mr Zeribi says companies have woken up to the need to "build the France of tomorrow" with the ethnic minorities whose talents and potential, he says, have been underestimated in the past.
But he says France does not need ethnic job quotas or affirmative action programmes.
"All we need to do is recognise competence," he said. "That means ignoring skin colour or religion and simply focussing on what's important - who can do the job."
But if that is happening, it is not obvious to the people in Saint-Denis.
"France is racist and hypocritical," one young black man told me. "Perhaps things are getting better in the UK, but not here."
You mean they've been lying about leading the world in acceptance, tolerance and social superiority for all these years?
Kind of with the French on this one. These guys have no marketable skills except memorizing the Koran and beating their wives. Oh, and whining about equal opportunities.
I agree with you, but it would seem that it would be in France’s favor to get these people in mainstream to “westernize” them and at least have a new generation buck the radical trend. Segregation only breeds more of the people who don’t want to acclimate. However the first few years will be a pain in the rear. And a few girls will die for their family’s “honor” when trying to be French.
The French and British after them have become so effete they are accepting national suicide rather than confront a hostile invasion of Islamist fanatics.
Please somebody explain to me how the gaullic culture that went into absolute hissy-fits over English words like “hamburger” “polluting” their national identity has blandly ignored Islamic fascists out-breeding and overcoming their entire Wester culture?
Perhaps this explains why Alec Baldwin DIDN'T move to France after Bush 43 was elected in '00.
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