Creating "ghettoes": French banlieues and their inhabitants (1960-2010)

Throughout the last thirty years banlieues in France have been invariably linked with the issues of migration and migrant communities. Migrants appeared there in the 1960s, when France began to import workers for its large industrial plants from her former North African colonies. There are a number of key events that shaped the development of these quarters in France and marking of them as the «zones of exclusion» by the French society. First, it is their settlement in the 1960s - 1970s by migrants and the gradual departure of non-migrants inhabitants. Second, it is the recognition of these social housing quarters by the society as the «migrant» areas. During this period, young members of the migrant communities engaged in protest manifestations to assert their equal citizen rights, drawing the attention of the society to the problem of social exclusion of banlieues inhabitants. The third stage was the beginning of the 1990s - the period of large-scale disturbances provoked by the inhabitants of banlieues. Even though France by that time had been for over a decade implementing social integration programs aimed at the inhabitants of these quarters, these «problem areas» still remained a kind of environment that locked in its young inhabitants and impeded their integration into the larger society. These territories begin to be called «ghettoes» thereby stressing their difference, marginality, their location at the social periphery, and the exclusion of their inhabitants from the life of the rest of the city. The next important step were the disturbances of 2005, when the Paris banlieues and the problems of migrants became a topic for discussion on a global scale, as their young inhabitants took to the streets, thereby drawing attention to the obvious problems of these quarters: social exclusion, unemployment, violence, and crime. Even though in the last decade France has been implementing numerous programs aimed at social integration of youth from these quarters, including improvements in education and support for cultural initiatives, banlieues are still the «exclusion zones.» The article explores the policies of the French state towards members of migrant communities from the 1960s till present. We also consider the policies regarding the inhabitants of the banlieues. In conclusion, we discuss whether the term «ghetto» could be applied to these areas.

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