FRONT PAGE" "
The current explosion of civil unrest that has struck the whole of the urban zones of France cannot be understood in isolation from our contemporary history and the evolution that has led to these huge concentrations of immigrant populations. The violence that has erupted in a spectacular way in recent days has existed for a very long time, and in an endemic way. Even if the situation has been aggravated by various contributory causes, it cannot be isolated from the general context of social alienation (lawless zones), mass unemployment, and the creation of a black economy of criminal type (drug trafficking). We may add that any simplistic or unilateral evaluation of the situation only concurs to make extremely difficult problems yet more insoluble. Those who pretend that they have at their disposal exhaustive or definitive solutions of the ills from which we suffer are impostors. The extreme complexity of the tasks that need to be undertaken requires, on the part of people of good will, a climate of cooperation and the burying of partisan rivalries. We need above all to understand properly that we cannot turn backwards and that the only reasonable prospect in response to the marked presence of populations of foreign origin is integration, in the sense in which it is understood in France and which is distinguished from Anglo-Saxon concepts of belonging to the community. One of the reasons, often forgotten, of the influx of immigrants into France, is connected with France’s colonial past and the responsibilities assumed toward those countries that speak the French language and naturally turn to us to overcome their own economic ills. Decolonization, marking a new phase in political relations, did not absolutely interrupt a history. It will perhaps be possible to have a better system of managing immigration, but, so long as Africa is unable to offer its own young generations the means to realise their own aspirations, the walls raised to impede the circulation of people will be shown to be powerless. Perhaps the current weakness of economic growth renders problematic the access to employment in the deprived suburbs. In addition, the reluctance to increase public expenditure is in conflict with the massive investments needed to support the more crucial needs of immigrant communities, in terms of housing, jobs, education and training. But nothing would be more damaging that a form of resignation that would discourage any kind of initiative. Archbishop Ricard, speaking at the assembly of French bishops at Lourdes, summed up the hope that everyone should share as follows: “It is vital to offer to these new generations, often devoid of hope, a future of freedom, dignity and mutual respect”. The violence must be curbed as soon as possible. But the immediate maintenance of order will not be enough to solve a deep crisis. It is the whole nation, and also Europe, that is called to embrace a prospect of public good, to find multiple and dynamic solutions that will vanquish the fatalism of despair and hatred.
