France in flames

Mass migration is a breeding ground for ethnic riots - Four points on the social crisis

Violent clashes in Paris with supporters of PKK Fotó: BRUNO THEVENIN

The recent riots in France, which erupted after the murder of seventeen-year-old Nahel Merzouk of Algerian origin, mark the latest stage in a series of ethnic riots that have been taking place since 2005.  Previously, ethnic riots of similar intensity took place in 2005, 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2017. The periodic recurrence of riots is therefore indicative of a structural problem in France's society and state.

The primary cause of the urban riots is the social-economic crisis in France. The Yellow Vest demonstrations between 2018 and 2020, as well as the protests over the 2023 French pension reform, which began in January this year, have already indicated that the French economic model cannot provide more social security for the middle-class and lower social groups. Emmanuel Macron's first presidency (2017–2022) further aggravated the economic crisis with economic policies favouring the wealthy.

The second reason is emotional. In France's so-called "vulnerable urban zones", feelings of resentment, inequality, injustice and anger are deep. Part of this is certainly the responsibility of young people themselves, who are not willing to seriously engage in education or doing manual jobs most readily available to them on the labour market. The other part of the responsibility lies with the French state, which left these zones without serious training programmes and integration opportunities, and relied only on the police to maintain order.

Many young people from these neighbourhoods work in public transport, the cleaning sector, restaurants and factories, for example, but others lead a life of rebellion, making a living from drug trafficking, theft and violence. They are the protagonists of the riots, young people who have dropped out of education and are jobless. In their everyday lives, they feel that their anger has no power, and consequently, the changes they demand are not taking place. In the riots, they see an opportunity to demonstrate their power. However, the places and infrastructure they destroy or loot belong to the community and to the people who actually work hard to secure their livelihoods. While the looting of shops shows the desperation of young people, their destructive actions are most damaging to small businesses near their neighbourhoods, owned by hard-working, independent entrepreneurs.

The third reason is cultural and personal in nature. Most young people who opt for crime and confrontation come from disintegrated families without an authoritative figure, as did Nahel Merzouk, who grew up without a father. In immigrant families, the fathers' authority could be a strong controlling factor. However, the Western social model is destroying these structures as well. Those who have fathers also rebel, because the French liberal milieu teaches them to value freedom above all else and to oppose all authority, especially that of fathers, as well as religious and state authority. Moreover, given the rejection of charismatic leadership in today's liberal states today - Mr Macron's personality is a good example of this compared to his predecessors Jacques Chirac, François Mitterrand and Charles de Gaulle - it is difficult to expect young people in France to respect the country's leaders.

The fourth reason is rooted in historical grievances.  Between 1835 and 1903, France subjugated Algeria, instituting a strategy of scorched earth under the leadership of a notorious Governor-General Thomas Robert Bugeaud, who said: "we fire little gunshot, we burn all douars, all villages, all huts; the enemy flees across taking his flock". France's colonisation of Africa is laden with violence and the memories feed the hatred of succeeding generations. The descendants of the colonised, the young generation of immigrants living in France, see law enforcement and other institutional authority as the enemy. 

A Nanterre prosecutor said the two police officers attempted to stop the Mercedes AMG driven by Nahel Merzouk  after the driver committed a series of traffic offences, endangering the lives of others. According to the prosecutor's office, during the interrogation, the two officers said that they feared that the driver would step on the gas and hit them. It was at this point that the fatal police shooting took place. Thus, a routine police action ended in homicide on 27 June, which illustrates the intensity of tensions prevailing in society.

French law enforcement forces are struggling with a serious crisis, with ten thousand police officers and fifteen thousand gendarmes quitting in 2022. According to media reports, the reasons for departure include doing endless overtime without getting paid, a lack of equipment, run-down vehicles, dilapidated buildings and violence used against and within the police. Violence against police officers is not punished strictly enough, perpetrators usually get six months, but they are released with an electronic tracker and are not put behind bars. Every year, an average of 12 600 police officers are injured in the line of duty and nine are killed. "I believe that in the coming decades we will have to make do with security forces that are outdated and unable to adequately respond to the challenges facing French society," Julien Sapori, honorary district police commissioner, opined.

The political leadership clearly and immediately blamed the police officer for what happened and ordered his arrest, sparking a huge outcry from trade unions. "The outrage on the streets and in social networks makes the authorities back down and they are mistaken if they think they can buy social peace with statements like those made by the President of the Republic, who condemned our colleague in advance," trade union leader Gregory Joron said. Several police sources reported that law enforcement forces were ordered to exercise restraint during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, with orders issued in several parts of the country to avoid clashes and make a low number of arrests, limited to the most aggressive rioters.

During its post-World War II reconstruction, France offered jobs, social security and prosperity to the first generation of immigrants. This prosperous period is known as Les Trente Glorieuses, a thirty-year period of economic growth in France between 1945 and 1975. This booming period came to an end, however, when the American neoliberal order reached and pervaded France. The result was the birth of a privileged French elite that owns the economy, a  weak state, an impoverished lower middle class living on subsistence level, a weakening middle class, and the false democracy of individual consumer rights became dominant. The crisis in France has been structural since the 1980s, but the loss of influence in Africa over the past decade, followed by the coronavirus health crisis and the economic fallout from the war in Ukraine, particularly high inflation, have deepened the social deprivation in French suburbs.

France also imported the concept of a police state from the United States. Maintaining order in vulnerable urban neighbourhoods requires a huge police force. Tension is compounded by the possible excesses of some police officers, but also by the defiance of young migrants. Thus, the vicious circle of violence and police intervention has created an ethos of resistance, with crime and defiance of the police being a laudable act. Some of the demonstrators, echoing Black Lives Matter ideology, wore black T-shirts with the words Justice for Nahel.

The riots make it clear that a functioning state cannot be envisioned without a culture of respect for tradition and institutional authority. The effectiveness of law enforcement, which is indispensable for a civilised society, begins with respect for the family and institutional authority. A neoliberal society that undermines all these values, makes false promises of prosperity and freedom, and tries to plug demographic gaps with migrants, in fact, is destroying social cohesion and security that are essential for stability.

The authors are senior researchers at Szazadveg School of Politics Foundation

Cover photo: Serious unrest, migrants rioting in France (Photo: Bruno Thevenin)