Emeutes urbaines et protestations

With just a few months separating them, the November 2005 riots and January 2006 student protests placed the questions of segregation, job insecurity, lowered social status and also inter-generational inequalities at the heart of the social debate in France. The places and people involved revealed the dynamics at play and the sheer scale of the movements calls the French model of integration and way of governing into question. It is difficult to understand the full implications of these events without taking into account the relegation of the poorest part of the population into impoverished areas and the auto-segregation of the well-off into richer areas. Ethnic discrimination and the deficit in political representation of immigrant populations are glaringly obvious. Neither can it be denied that differences in educational opportunities, - programmes, options, value of diplomas obtained – have contributed to the reinforcement of a sentiment of profound justice.