Review article
FRENCH RIOTS OF 2005: WEST-SIDE STORY
Dražen Lalić
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Jelena Zlatković-Winter
; Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The paper deals with the massive riots of the immigrants in French city suburbs in the autumn of 2005. First, the authors give an account of the immigrants’ social position and the violent behaviour of these young and marginal groups as identified by eminent sociologists and other experts. On this they build their hypothesis that the revolt of the second-generation young immigrants is an autochthonous French, European and Western revolt. It should not be viewed as a manifestation of some Huntingtonian clash of civilizations i.e. a
political and cultural contest between Islam and the West. The authors
prove this hypothesis by analyzing various manifestations and social underpinnings of the French riots. The causes of the riots are primarily the marginalization of the second-generation Arab and African immigrants who believe there are no institutional and socially
desirable means to achieve the major cultural goals of the western society, and who see an enormous gap between the formal-legal treatment of immigrants as equal citizens and their real status as secondclass citizens. Although vital for Europe – particularly regarding the increasing demand of many Western European (and even some transitional) countries for labour due to the processes of depopulation and population ageing – these young immigrants are a sort of European aliens.
Keywords
riots; violence; immigrants; migrations; ethnic minorities; youth; France; Europe
Hrčak ID:
20550
URI
Publication date:
13.12.2006.
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