Political Science

This paper aims to provide knowledge on the racial and ethnic hegemony in contemporary France. It explains the broaden issue on the impact of  racial injustice to  French youth immigrants living in the suburbs of Paris. It describes how the suburban ghettos became the primary source of civil unrest due to the failures of the French government to render a pure sense of socio-political equality to its immigrants. This paper argues on the central controversy in the realm of the French intellectual debate the uncertainties surrounding the modification of the traditional republican principles to be reconciled with a fair recognition of ethnic and cultural diversity. It is in this argument that this papers thesis is deep rooted. The main standpoint of this essay validates the fact that contemporary France needs to uphold a pluralist concept of civic identiy and cite the positive values of the cultures of the ethnic minorities.

The finite problem of social exclusion by the youth ethnic minorities in Paris was confronted by the French government through the creation of public institutions meant to counter racial tension during the1950s. The establishment of the Societe Nationale de Construction de Logements pour les Travailleurs and Algeriens and the Fonds d Action Sociale pour les Travailleurs Immigres in the late 1950s served to address the housing problems and to fund social and cultural activities for the migrants (Penninx 2004). However, government efforts to  address the racial and ethnic outcry of the immigrants became inadequate as the nation became overwhelmed with the massive influx of the immigrants.

The 1995  film La Haine by Mathieu Kassowitz is a clear manifestation of the violent and negative implication of social exclusion. The film focuses on the violence and negligence which are the common themes in the deprived suburb of France. In the suburb area in France live Vinz, a Jew who has long held an anger against the racist culture, Said, a talkactive Arab who longed for some acceptance through sex, and Hubert, a black man who dreams of becoming a successful boxer. With racism as the focal theme of the movie, the director is able to create a fiction out of the reality. In the film, it is seen that the three characters, all of them are jobless and have no productive way of spending their time, are being deprived of economic opportunities due to the ongoing racial tension. This kind of deprivation is atttibuted to the failure of the French political classes to integrate immigrants of different races into the nations economy and culture resulting to the rising number of unemployed immigrants (Ireland 2005). Also, the ethnic minorities have fallen short of the supply of basic necessities which  greatly impacted their daily living.

It is recorded that the rising unemployment rate among the ethnic minorities in the Paris suburbs disproportionately affected migrants and their children and turned several ethnic minority neighbourhoods in the outskirts of France into wastelands of poverty along with the common social occurrences such as tension, urban violence and crime (Penninx 2004). In this sense, it can be said that the economic problem of the etnic minorities translates to another major social problem such as crime and violence. The economic deprivation which the socially disadvantaged society experiences in contemporary France continually shape and negatively influence the mindset of the civilians who resort to violence as a cure for public negligence.

Included among the major backlashes of the failure of the government to recognize equality is found in the education system of France. It is noted that the educational institutions meant for the ethnic minorities are commonly staffed by weary, tyrant and cynical teachers and the students have no choice but to endure the filthy and overcrowded classrooms (Ireland 2005). This description matches with the films point of view education as Hubert says to Vinz that he learned hate breeds hate in school. Seeing the characters as nuisance youths, the impact of derailed educational system for the ethnic minorities have been intertwined with sociological, emotional and psychological problems.

Scholars argue that the formulation of institutional racism imposed on ethnic minorities in the field of education is a serious phenomenon because of the changing cultures  of young people in the European context concerning racial, ethnic and gender basis. The changing preferences of the French youth concerning racism can be considered as one of the main contributing factors leading to a more fragmented society. True enough, it is reported that the pursuit for an effective anti-discriminatory and intercultural education in contemporary France is being overshadowed by a gruesome fact that the complexity of the racism is certainly cannot be solved through government intervention alone.

Set up in a decaying housing project in one of Frances suburbs, the film La Haine is a reflection of the immigrants  conflict with the French government concerning housing and settlements. It is written that the spatial concentration of ethnic minorities in certain parts of  France remains a political issue. At present, the high-rise human warehouses meant where the migrants reside are a filthy, crowded and sinister places with limites commercial amenities for the residents (Ireland 2005).

The settlements of the ethnic minorities mirror out the blurred opportunities for the youth migrants who have been singled out through age, ethnicity and appearance as the societys troublemakers. In the 1970s, the transit settlements, which were home to almost exclusively poor migrant families, instigated tensions with the French populations housed in adjacent neighbourhoods, and they increasingly perceived as ghettos (Penninx 2004). The social unrest in the overcrowded part of France and the unfinished promise ofracial and ethnic hegemony in france settlements conducive enough for healthy living remain as an outcome of the failed attempt of the French political classes to integrate the minorities in their priority list.

The ghetto youths living in the suburbs of  Paris are a reflection of an isolated society that has to live with a stigma of being a slum, uneducated and neglected civilization. In the 1980s,  the neigbourhoods in the suburbs of France with high concentrations of migrants started to be considered as ghettos (Penninx 2004). The rise of the ghettos at the time was greatly affiliated with the radical counter-attackes of the ethnic minorities who succumbed to violence and brutality as a form of rebellion. The 1980s ghettos had turned from traditional working-class neighborhoods into a deprived and alienated ethnic minority neighbourhoods as an effect of the widespread housing shortage and the discrimination against the ethnic migrants (Penninx 2004).  In addition, the ghetto migrants then were increasingly viewed as the sources of insecurity and as threats to public order (Penninx 2004). The social connotation for the ethnic minorities as well as the emergence of the term  ghetto  leads to the identity crisis of such minorities who are now confused with the totality of their being. This concept creates a picture of the neglected minorities searching for their identity amid condemnation (Ireland 2005).

Ghetto youths residing in the suburbs of Paris are regarded as suffering from acute disadvantage in the labor market and are commonly referred to as underclass (Hargreaves 1995). It is noted that being labeled as ghetto means ethnic alterity in which it is commonly attributed to dysfunctional behavior and low standards of personal morality. In La Haine, the three characters nuisance attitude validates the notion that ethnic minorities have a disturbed past as viewed by their radical outlook in life.  Given this description, the ghetto then is being defined as the anti-thesis of successful integration a spatially modified enclave occupied by people who deviate from the moral and material norms of the whole population (Hargreaves 1995). With this concept, the political debate on the rise of the ghettos and their structured identities is pointed at the failure of the French government to enact multicultural policies and laws that may benefit the ethnic minorities in economic, political, educational and social contexts.

Conclusion
This paper confirms the Frances one sided outlook in terms of policy-making across all fields. Taking cues from the historical and ideological contexts, this paper affirms the concept that the negligence of France towards the ethnic minorities is due to the clash of several kinds of response of the government to racial and ethnic hegemony. As the response of the government tend to be a traditionalist one, an action which refuses to accept any claims of the relevance of multicultural societies and strongly praises the orthodox republican principles of the secular nation, the French politics denies the ethnic minorities the chance to contribute for the common good and limits the capabilities of the migrants within the confides of being a ghetto.