CURRENT AGE: 19
CURRENT AGE: 20
HOPE COMES IN MANY FORMS FOR SUBURBS
PHOTO GALLERY
French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged nearly 1 billion euros in 2007 to aid the suburbs after the riots. However, youth in Banlieue 93 have not seen any of that money, nor have they seen much change at all.
“Sarkozy says that he wants to improve the life in the suburbs, but for him it’s just a little strategy. Sarkozy doesn’t change anything,” said Divine Nsingi, 14, from Villiers-le-Bel.
Residents generally agree on the priorities of the suburbs: education, employment, a sense of community, and bettering the image of Banlieue 93 held by the general French population. (Banlieue is the French word for "outskirts." Since the 1970s and 1980s, the word has become a euphemism for the low-income housing projects that house mainly French of foreign descent or foreign immigrants. They generally are around Paris but also in some other large French cities.)
To most youth, improving the education system should be the top priority in the suburbs. In France, education is status.
According to Marwan Mohammed, a sociologist who grew up in the suburbs, “The school you attend and the degree you hold determines who you are in society.” He is now president of the Noisy-le-Grand suburb’s community improvement committee.
Unfortunately, youth don’t have much freedom about where they attend school.
“The area where you live depends on the means of your parents, and the area where you live determines what schools you are able to attend,” said Mohammed, who noted that in some areas of Seine-Saint-Denis, “failure is the norm … only 30 percent of students graduate from secondary school.”
Many suburban youth realize, however, that education is critical to improving their living standards. Phelinda Dorcelian, 19, a student in Saint-Denis, says a good education is necessary to get a job and to be more successful than her parents. If people in the suburbs were better educated, she added, they would not have such a violent, dark reputation.
But getting a better education is not easy. Recently, Sarkozy demanded elite universities admit 30 percent of their student bodies from lower income families. However, the universities defied Sarkozy’s order, arguing that it would lower their rigorous standards. Last September, Sarkozy met with success in his 2008 initiative to reserve 30 percent of positions in preparatory classes for entrance exams to elite universities.
Exclusivity is not the only problem. Talented students educated in the suburbs might have trouble passing the schools’ rigorous entrance exams because of lack of preparation.
Hugues Lagrange, a sociologist at the elite Sciences Po academy, points out that many immigrant families lack any formal education, and their children often start having trouble in primary school and don’t get help until it is too late.
Sciences Po, one of the most prestigious universities in France, is opening a new branch in Bondy in order to make itself more accessible to area youth. Similarly, Bondy Blog is working with the Lille School of Journalism to open a journalism school in Bondy to help reach out to youth, not only in hopes of improving their skills but of eventually diversifying the French media.
While Lagrange says these projects are encouraging, they need to be much more widespread to have much impact on suburban youth.
Aladine Zaiane, who has lived all his life in Banlieue 93, writes for the Bondy Blog and says change must begin at the family level. Education, he said, must be valued and encouraged.
Zaiane explained that many of his friends stopped going to school as young as middle school because they didn’t find it useful. They believed their social status would prevent them from getting a good job even if they got a high academic degree, he said.
Perhaps the Sciences Po branch would motivate all students by helping top-performing immigrant youth attend an elite university, Lagrange said. Those students would be an example for other suburban youth, he said, by showing that merit matters as much as birthright.
Sarkozy also has targeted aid to suburban residents no longer in school. In September, he announced plans to spend 500 million euros (about $729 million) to help young job seekers by expanding unemployment benefits and providing scholarships for career training for teenage dropouts. This is in addition to a 1.3 billion euro unemployment emergency plan enacted in April.
Organizations within the suburbs also have been trying to help the jobless. Yacine Djaziri, a contractor who employs suburban youth who are in trouble with the law, homeless or school dropouts, teaches business etiquette and work habits. He has had success with the majority of suburban youth he has worked with.
While education and jobs are the top priorities of suburban residents, improved living conditions follow closely behind. A shift to a more local form of governance not only makes officials more accessible to residents but lends a greater sense of community to the area.
For example, in Clichy-sous-Bois, one of Banlieue 93’s most depressed communities, an activist group called AC le Feu (Enough Fire) works with the local government to meet citizens’ transportation and housing needs. Jeunes Musulmans de France (Young Muslims of France) is another organization that sponsors community-building programs, such as sports programs and tutoring, and provides hot meals for the destitute.
“The whole concept of JMF is if you need help and you can ask help, it’s one of your rights as a citizen of this country, (but) that you can also help solve problems in your own city,” says Asma Soltain, 22, Argenteuil.
Another important factor in improving the situation in the suburbs is changing the way the general population views immigrants in general and the Seine-Saint-Denis region in particular. One way to accomplish this is for the media to report on positive aspects of life in the suburbs rather than focusing only on violence there.
Luc Bronner, a journalist for Le Monde, has made the suburbs his regular beat so that he can report more in-depth. He also has worked to build relationships there so that his stories are as unbiased as possible.
The Bondy Blog also is working to improve the suburbs’ image. The blog was set up in 2005 by Serge 
Michel, the foreign editor of a Swiss magazine, in order to explore some of the issues behind the rioting. Today, the blog shines a light on life in the suburbs — culture, sports, business, politics — not just focusing on the problems there.
Similarly, Respect magazine highlights the voices of minority youth in the suburbs. It was founded six years ago geared not only to a minority audience but also to expose the general population to the energy and experiences of immigrant youth.
Recently, there does seem to be some progress in the suburbs. Government sponsorship of hip-hop events draw youth from all over Paris, and local governments are working on improving transportation and other social services. In addition, the high cost of living in the central city is causing some Parisians to head for the outskirts.
But change is slow. Axel Ardes, a French teacher and writer for the Bondy Blog, says that in his 20 years of living in the suburbs, it’s only been in the last five that much has happened. The French tend to be slow and deliberative by nature, Ardes said, especially when money is involved.
Few expect much change will ever come from the traditional political system. They charge that French ethnocentrism and party politics will prevent the federal government from ever making real improvements in the suburbs.
As an example, Lagrange cites the government’s past involvement in rebuilding some of the public housing in the area. While some people benefited from the improvements, many more would have profited if the money was spent on improving the educational system, he said.
Instead, Lagrange and others believe more meaningful change will have to come from the people.
Almamy Kanoute, a social worker, says that networking within the suburbs will eventually give rise to a leader for the suburbs.
Benene Essaji, 23, from Villeneuve says residents will have to change first. “First of all we have to change ourselves, OK? And then we have to change the French power over us,” she said.
Editor's note: Photographs for this package were taken by Indianapolis Star photographer Kelly Wilkinson and Randy Johnson, Randy Johnson Photography.
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