A year ago thousands of young immigrants from the housing estates around Paris went on a rampage. During three weeks thousands of vehicles and scores of buildings were torched, thousands of rioters arrested and a state of emergency declared.
Politicians from all sides blamed the youths. This, they said, was no way to behave in the France that champions liberty and equality.
The rioters in turn blamed the politicians for creating a France that only pretends to be fair and free
This is not my France . The one that celebrates the Beaujolais festival . That stinks of racism but pretends its open minded sings Melanie Georgiades the hottest thing in French rap today
She voices the discontent of those living in the Other France, the subsidised housing estates where the young face 40% unemployment and systemic discrimination.
If I showed you all the piles of rejections it would be this thick just for simple jobs. 24 year old Nazim Moussaoui tells Foreign Correspondents Jane Hutcheon.
I dont have the right profile.
What he does have is the same name as a convicted terrorist and in France these days that is enough to sentence him to life on the employment scrap heap.
While last year the frustrations of the suburbs of exploded on the streets, this year Nazim and his friends are taking their message to the airwaves. Despite a Presidential election in the offing they arent holding their breath for any change to their lives.
Music
HUTCHEON: Melanie Georgiades known to adoring fans as Diams -- is the hottest thing in French rap.
Diams is the daughter of Cypriot immigrants raised in the restive suburbs of Paris. Her words carry the anger and disillusionment of a generation.
Diams: Its not my France, which celebrates the Beaujolais festival, That pretends to have been fucked by immigrants, that stinks of racism but pretends its open minded.
HUTCHEON: France prides itself on liberal ideals of equality for all, regardless of race or religion. But like the young rap star, many citizens believe their leaders are out of touch with reality.
Though Presidential elections are still six months away, Diams wants her fans to stand up and be heard.
Diams: If were going to wait around for the politicians to discover us. Shit! Were going to find ourselves in a repressive and racist country. Its time to start opening our mouths and go vote. So please dont be dumb.
Music
HUTCHEON: Its one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Millions come to France for its history, architecture and sense of romance.
Music
HUTCHEON: While many visitors are often smitten, for many French the reality is a country that prefers to look backwards and not to the future.
Music
HUTCHEON: According to political sociologist Vincent Tiberj, France doesnt collect statistics on ethnicity or religion. The government appears to be have only recently woken up to the demographic change.
Tiberj: Because that was not Republican. Because in the French republic, you see citizens, but you dont see men or women, Catholic or Muslim, Turkish French, Maghrebian French, Italian French or French French. A republic cant stand this kind of difference.
Music
HUTCHEON: Its estimated almost a quarter of the population 14 million people -- have immigrant roots. Many of them live in state-subsidised housing on the edge of major cities. Known as Banlieue these estates are often dens of deprivation. Successive housing and welfare cuts over the years have taken their toll.
Tiberj: For the moment this sense of de-connection is huge, and you have some kind of real social and ethnic fracture towards the national political class.
But when you look at the level of confidence towards the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and even Nicolas Sarkozy, they are really, really low.
HUTCHEON: Despite overall prosperity in France, unemployment is stuck at ten percent. Youth unemployment is double that and in some areas its as high as 40%.
HUTCHEON: Its not so bad!
NAZIM: Its not like one of those big estates. These are small buildings, not a giant neighbourhood.
HUTCHEON: Half an hour from Paris by train is Plaisir, Pleasure, in English. As subsidised housing estates go, this isnt so desperate. These young men were born in France, but all have an immigrant parent or parents.
To spend a day here is to understand the frustration of growing up without money or connections. These men call it the other France.
HUTCHEON: Do you consider yourself French ?
NAZIM: I dont consider myself French because when somebody sees me, hes never going to say this guy is French, theyre going to say hes Arab. I live in France, but its not my country of origin. I dont feel totally French.
HUTCHEON: Nazim Moussaoui, Michael Colliaux and Kevin Martinerie are childhood friends. Theyre also in a rap group called Naturel, managed by Michaels elder brother Benjamin.
Twenty-four and unemployed, theyve always had a hard time finding work. Even Nazim Moussaoui who finished high school, believes hes missed out, simply because his family name is the same as a convicted terrorist.
NAZIM: If I showed you all the piles of rejections, it would be this thick and for all kinds of jobs, just for simple jobs where you just need physical ability or packing boxes, or even working in accounting or reception, I dont have the right profile.
Music
HUTCHEON: At another suburb, Montfermeil north-east of Paris, its market day. This is Les Bosquets, literally, Little Woods, a concrete ghetto built in the sixties to house Frances growing population of North-African immigrants.
With funds from the European Union, the estate is to be demolished over the next few years as part of an urban regeneration program. A year after riots which started in a neighbouring estate, theres still widespread mistrust and disenchantment.
Last years riots created such a negative image of the city that the mayor Xavier Lemoine is desperately trying to re-brand it. The mayor insists last years violence was confined to just one part of his city the dilapidated estate.
LEMOINE: We refurbished that one not long ago, but I think it was a mistake. We should have demolished it.
HUTCHEON: He explains that while its just 3% of the districts physical area, it holds a third of the population about nine thousand people. Most of them are from former French colonies like Algeria and Morocco.
LEMOINE: If the residents see us with a camera, were
sure to get stones thrown at us. Im not going to send you there on your own because everyone whos done that either had cameras stolen or other serious problems. Its pointless.
HUTCHEON: Monsieur Lemoine has been branded a racist by some quarters of the French media. The mayor glories in a replica of an ancient windmill, build in the 18th Century when France was a monarchy with a homogenous culture.
LEMOINE: The system of Islam is a totalitarian one.
It doesnt differentiate between the spiritual and the secular. Its a whole. The Muslim who says Im a secular Muslim is either secular or Muslim but he cant be both.
HUTCHEON: Though religion and race were undercurrents of last years riots, the people we spoke to were all secular. While they felt cut-off from mainstream society, religion wasnt the reason.
Music
HUTCHEON: If M. Lemoine epitomises old France, Madam Segolene Royal represents the new. The 53 year old mother of four and partner of Frances socialist party leader is grabbing headlines with her feminine appeal.
The Socialist Party is due to choose its presidential candidate next month, but already, Madam Royal looks the part.
MADAM ROYAL: Id like to say today that the general feeling of French people is that France is being pulled down
HUTCHEON: An army officers daughter, she believes unruly youngsters should be forced to join military-style construction groups. Her catchphrase is la difference, or renewal and shes vowed to break the stereotype of the remote, old-fashioned President.
HUTCHEON: Do you understand the sense of disintegration that the young people in the Banlieue feel?
MADAM ROYAL: Yes of course, there is discrimination. The unemployment rate of youth in the housing estates is twice as high as the rest of the people I want to build alternative projects with those concerned so I will go to the Banlieus, to the estates, to build with them what they need. I will tell them that France needs them, that they are all children of France and we need their energy and we will build with them what they need.
HUTCHEON: Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is the brightest star on the French right. In an attempt to increase his popular appeal, he recently announced ambitious plans to halve unemployment within five years. He backs the controversial policy of forced deportation of immigrants.
SARKOZY: Its only France who can decide what immigration policy we want for our nation.
Music
HUTCHEON: Not surprisingly, politicians like M. Sarkozy are detested in the suburbs.
MICHAEL: In the government, they lived their lives, Daddys boys,
they did their studies, Daddy paid for it. They went to the best schools, they came to the highest levels of government.
And in the meantime, we continue our classes like them, we go to school and try to learn just like them. But we have our wings clipped because we cannot touch the key positions of the government of France.
Music
HUTCHEON: The young men of the suburbs doubt a change of President can make a difference to their disillusionment.
MICHAEL: I think a woman in power, without sounding like a Macho,
its not really the time, to put a woman in power in France.
NAZIM: But frankly, I say that Segolene Royal is better than Sarkozy. Even if she says crazy things like a military camp for youngsters, which I dont think is a solution. But shes much better than Sarkozy because hes going to put more police everywhere, even bring the army.
MICHAEL: I see Sarkozy, I see Royal and I dont see the choice. None of them is really good for me
HUTCHEON: To these youngsters, political change isnt promising, but life in the suburbs is about living for the moment and now isnt the time to worry.
Music
HUTCHEON: Determined to break out of the cycle of poverty and lack of opportunity, the group has hired a professional film-clip director, hoping to promote their work.
HUTCHEON: Theyve invited friends from other neighbourhoods to appear in the video for a slice of reality.. Too much reality for the director.
DIRECTOR: Its no good. You can light a firework, but not three or four times. Youre diverting their attention and its really not good.
HUTCHEON: For the young men of the other France, this is their big chance for a life beyond the estates.
SONG: Come on. Stand up. We are hot. Oh! Im heading to the top, thats my business, Im giving it all my stock, non-stop, we have the energy!
NAZIM: Its a release. Rap is what helps to liberate us from bad feelings. When we are happy we write joyful things, when we dont feel good we write sad things. So instead of going to see a shrink, I write my problems onto paper.
Music
HUTCHEON: It may take time for the message from the suburbs to be heard. For too long, French governments have by-passed the urban backwater. Frances new President will ignore it, at his or her peril.
Music
Reporter: Jane Hutcheon
Camera: Michael Cox
Editor: Bryan Milliss
Research: Ilano Navaro
Politicians from all sides blamed the youths. This, they said, was no way to behave in the France that champions liberty and equality.
The rioters in turn blamed the politicians for creating a France that only pretends to be fair and free
This is not my France . The one that celebrates the Beaujolais festival . That stinks of racism but pretends its open minded sings Melanie Georgiades the hottest thing in French rap today
She voices the discontent of those living in the Other France, the subsidised housing estates where the young face 40% unemployment and systemic discrimination.
If I showed you all the piles of rejections it would be this thick just for simple jobs. 24 year old Nazim Moussaoui tells Foreign Correspondents Jane Hutcheon.
I dont have the right profile.
What he does have is the same name as a convicted terrorist and in France these days that is enough to sentence him to life on the employment scrap heap.
While last year the frustrations of the suburbs of exploded on the streets, this year Nazim and his friends are taking their message to the airwaves. Despite a Presidential election in the offing they arent holding their breath for any change to their lives.
Music
HUTCHEON: Melanie Georgiades known to adoring fans as Diams -- is the hottest thing in French rap.
Diams is the daughter of Cypriot immigrants raised in the restive suburbs of Paris. Her words carry the anger and disillusionment of a generation.
Diams: Its not my France, which celebrates the Beaujolais festival, That pretends to have been fucked by immigrants, that stinks of racism but pretends its open minded.
HUTCHEON: France prides itself on liberal ideals of equality for all, regardless of race or religion. But like the young rap star, many citizens believe their leaders are out of touch with reality.
Though Presidential elections are still six months away, Diams wants her fans to stand up and be heard.
Diams: If were going to wait around for the politicians to discover us. Shit! Were going to find ourselves in a repressive and racist country. Its time to start opening our mouths and go vote. So please dont be dumb.
Music
HUTCHEON: Its one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Millions come to France for its history, architecture and sense of romance.
Music
HUTCHEON: While many visitors are often smitten, for many French the reality is a country that prefers to look backwards and not to the future.
Music
HUTCHEON: According to political sociologist Vincent Tiberj, France doesnt collect statistics on ethnicity or religion. The government appears to be have only recently woken up to the demographic change.
Tiberj: Because that was not Republican. Because in the French republic, you see citizens, but you dont see men or women, Catholic or Muslim, Turkish French, Maghrebian French, Italian French or French French. A republic cant stand this kind of difference.
Music
HUTCHEON: Its estimated almost a quarter of the population 14 million people -- have immigrant roots. Many of them live in state-subsidised housing on the edge of major cities. Known as Banlieue these estates are often dens of deprivation. Successive housing and welfare cuts over the years have taken their toll.
Tiberj: For the moment this sense of de-connection is huge, and you have some kind of real social and ethnic fracture towards the national political class.
But when you look at the level of confidence towards the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and even Nicolas Sarkozy, they are really, really low.
HUTCHEON: Despite overall prosperity in France, unemployment is stuck at ten percent. Youth unemployment is double that and in some areas its as high as 40%.
HUTCHEON: Its not so bad!
NAZIM: Its not like one of those big estates. These are small buildings, not a giant neighbourhood.
HUTCHEON: Half an hour from Paris by train is Plaisir, Pleasure, in English. As subsidised housing estates go, this isnt so desperate. These young men were born in France, but all have an immigrant parent or parents.
To spend a day here is to understand the frustration of growing up without money or connections. These men call it the other France.
HUTCHEON: Do you consider yourself French ?
NAZIM: I dont consider myself French because when somebody sees me, hes never going to say this guy is French, theyre going to say hes Arab. I live in France, but its not my country of origin. I dont feel totally French.
HUTCHEON: Nazim Moussaoui, Michael Colliaux and Kevin Martinerie are childhood friends. Theyre also in a rap group called Naturel, managed by Michaels elder brother Benjamin.
Twenty-four and unemployed, theyve always had a hard time finding work. Even Nazim Moussaoui who finished high school, believes hes missed out, simply because his family name is the same as a convicted terrorist.
NAZIM: If I showed you all the piles of rejections, it would be this thick and for all kinds of jobs, just for simple jobs where you just need physical ability or packing boxes, or even working in accounting or reception, I dont have the right profile.
Music
HUTCHEON: At another suburb, Montfermeil north-east of Paris, its market day. This is Les Bosquets, literally, Little Woods, a concrete ghetto built in the sixties to house Frances growing population of North-African immigrants.
With funds from the European Union, the estate is to be demolished over the next few years as part of an urban regeneration program. A year after riots which started in a neighbouring estate, theres still widespread mistrust and disenchantment.
Last years riots created such a negative image of the city that the mayor Xavier Lemoine is desperately trying to re-brand it. The mayor insists last years violence was confined to just one part of his city the dilapidated estate.
LEMOINE: We refurbished that one not long ago, but I think it was a mistake. We should have demolished it.
HUTCHEON: He explains that while its just 3% of the districts physical area, it holds a third of the population about nine thousand people. Most of them are from former French colonies like Algeria and Morocco.
LEMOINE: If the residents see us with a camera, were
sure to get stones thrown at us. Im not going to send you there on your own because everyone whos done that either had cameras stolen or other serious problems. Its pointless.
HUTCHEON: Monsieur Lemoine has been branded a racist by some quarters of the French media. The mayor glories in a replica of an ancient windmill, build in the 18th Century when France was a monarchy with a homogenous culture.
LEMOINE: The system of Islam is a totalitarian one.
It doesnt differentiate between the spiritual and the secular. Its a whole. The Muslim who says Im a secular Muslim is either secular or Muslim but he cant be both.
HUTCHEON: Though religion and race were undercurrents of last years riots, the people we spoke to were all secular. While they felt cut-off from mainstream society, religion wasnt the reason.
Music
HUTCHEON: If M. Lemoine epitomises old France, Madam Segolene Royal represents the new. The 53 year old mother of four and partner of Frances socialist party leader is grabbing headlines with her feminine appeal.
The Socialist Party is due to choose its presidential candidate next month, but already, Madam Royal looks the part.
MADAM ROYAL: Id like to say today that the general feeling of French people is that France is being pulled down
HUTCHEON: An army officers daughter, she believes unruly youngsters should be forced to join military-style construction groups. Her catchphrase is la difference, or renewal and shes vowed to break the stereotype of the remote, old-fashioned President.
HUTCHEON: Do you understand the sense of disintegration that the young people in the Banlieue feel?
MADAM ROYAL: Yes of course, there is discrimination. The unemployment rate of youth in the housing estates is twice as high as the rest of the people I want to build alternative projects with those concerned so I will go to the Banlieus, to the estates, to build with them what they need. I will tell them that France needs them, that they are all children of France and we need their energy and we will build with them what they need.
HUTCHEON: Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is the brightest star on the French right. In an attempt to increase his popular appeal, he recently announced ambitious plans to halve unemployment within five years. He backs the controversial policy of forced deportation of immigrants.
SARKOZY: Its only France who can decide what immigration policy we want for our nation.
Music
HUTCHEON: Not surprisingly, politicians like M. Sarkozy are detested in the suburbs.
MICHAEL: In the government, they lived their lives, Daddys boys,
they did their studies, Daddy paid for it. They went to the best schools, they came to the highest levels of government.
And in the meantime, we continue our classes like them, we go to school and try to learn just like them. But we have our wings clipped because we cannot touch the key positions of the government of France.
Music
HUTCHEON: The young men of the suburbs doubt a change of President can make a difference to their disillusionment.
MICHAEL: I think a woman in power, without sounding like a Macho,
its not really the time, to put a woman in power in France.
NAZIM: But frankly, I say that Segolene Royal is better than Sarkozy. Even if she says crazy things like a military camp for youngsters, which I dont think is a solution. But shes much better than Sarkozy because hes going to put more police everywhere, even bring the army.
MICHAEL: I see Sarkozy, I see Royal and I dont see the choice. None of them is really good for me
HUTCHEON: To these youngsters, political change isnt promising, but life in the suburbs is about living for the moment and now isnt the time to worry.
Music
HUTCHEON: Determined to break out of the cycle of poverty and lack of opportunity, the group has hired a professional film-clip director, hoping to promote their work.
HUTCHEON: Theyve invited friends from other neighbourhoods to appear in the video for a slice of reality.. Too much reality for the director.
DIRECTOR: Its no good. You can light a firework, but not three or four times. Youre diverting their attention and its really not good.
HUTCHEON: For the young men of the other France, this is their big chance for a life beyond the estates.
SONG: Come on. Stand up. We are hot. Oh! Im heading to the top, thats my business, Im giving it all my stock, non-stop, we have the energy!
NAZIM: Its a release. Rap is what helps to liberate us from bad feelings. When we are happy we write joyful things, when we dont feel good we write sad things. So instead of going to see a shrink, I write my problems onto paper.
Music
HUTCHEON: It may take time for the message from the suburbs to be heard. For too long, French governments have by-passed the urban backwater. Frances new President will ignore it, at his or her peril.
Music
Reporter: Jane Hutcheon
Camera: Michael Cox
Editor: Bryan Milliss
Research: Ilano Navaro