IMMIGRANTS , A VIOLENT " RACE" ?

Recent events like the football match between France and Algeria strengthen the prejudice of links between immigration and violence.
In fact, it is this prejudice we should be afraid of...

Of course the proportion of people living in poor suburbs among immigrants is superior to the proportion of these people among French people (by ten percentage points) . Of course there are immigrants who are violent and of course again there are some who try to keep all their traditions and habits.
Some people say it' s because they are lazy and they don't want to find jobs that the immigrants are living in these areas . Some others are sure immigrants are well with immigrants and it is good for them to stay together ...
Today , we' ve tried to show the reality and , if a part of this prejudice is true , to explain why .

WHAT IS A GHETTO ?

But what is really a ghetto ? Dictionary definition ? " A place where people from the same blood are living together ". These places are most of the time situated around big cities. This situation is already a mark of exclusion. If we consider the French "ghettos" , we find there people from the Maghreb, French people , Blacks and people from other communities ; we can conclude these areas aren't real ghettos .
But the most important question still is : what are the reasons that make immigrants living in these poor areas, outside of the cities ?

Without the help of the government ( who is trying to restrict immigration ) and without money ( the average income of immigrants from Africa is about 64000 FF a year ), immigrants are finally obliged to join other immigrants in these city belts ( there is an overproportion of people living in blocks of flats among immigrants compared to the proportion of French people living in these blocks of flats ). Many immigrants we've been talking to have needed many years of administrative gates to obtain from the council flats organisations the possibility to live in the centres of the towns.

IMMIGRATION, JOBS AND STANDARD OF LIVING

Some people are sure that if immigrants were looking for jobs they would find one . A simple analyse of that phenomena is enough to prove the contrary. Statistics show that most of immigrants from Africa and South America are coming in France without the skills needed for French jobs . Which is more, racial discriminations, even if they are decreasing, are so high . According to statistics , 54.8 % of immigrants are workers or clerical workers , the two kinds of jobs where unemployment is the highest one .
All these conditions are at the origin of ghettos and gathering of immigrants in poor suburbs .Then we can easily refute the idea of violent immigrants only because of their race.

VIOLENCE AND WAYS OF LIFE

Backing on statistics, we can see that 14% of French people are living in outskirts and can be violent too .
Then the question becomes: "what are the causes of this violence ". It is not mathematically or politically we can resolve this question but from a human point of view .
In a very wealthy country, where mass consumption is the rule, a job of an average income of 6000 FF per month which takes all your free - time , easily leads to revolt. These conditions bring out a bad standard of living : not enough money to have leisure, no structures for integration help and, of course no travelling and no means to get more cultivated (music, sports, theatre, concerts ... ) .

 

We have been talking about the drawbacks of immigration and the bad way of life of immigrants , but what about the ones that have succeeded in their integration?
Who knows there is an overproportion of executives or of independent people among immigrants compared to the proportion of executives among the French population ? These immigrants ( whom nobody is talking about ) are living in the centres of towns or in wealthy houses in the countryside. By a curious coincidence, violence is never linked to these rich people, as if wealth faded skin differences away. If some people are violent , it will never be because of their origins but rather because of the conditions of life they have to put up with.

 

 

1- Unemployed Clerical Workers Workers Unemp. among Workers and Clerical Workers

Immigrants
19,9% 24,2 46,3% 51,5%

9% 28,4% 26,4% 39,5% Native People

WHERE DO THEY LIVE ?

2- People living in a Block of Flat Proprietors Individual House


57,5% 39,7% 38,7% Immigrants

39,5% 54,4% 53,1% Native People

 

1- We can see that there is an overproportion of unemployed among immigrants compared to the proportion of unemployed among native people.
- We can also notice the surproportion of immigrants among people working in non-skilled jobs (as workers and clerical workers) compared to the proportion of French people in those jobs. In fact, statistics also prove that there are more risks of unemployment in those works than in jobs that need more skills (as executives).

2- Following these firsts remarks, it is easy to understand the fact that there is an overproportion of French people among the proprietors and the people living in an individual house compared to the proportion of immigrants living in those houses. At the contrary, the proportion of immigrants livings in blocks of flat (often in suburbs) is higher by 18 percentage points to the proportion of native people living in blocks of flat.

 

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