How to treat French riots and European immigrants

654381The riots that broke out in the suburbs of France on October 27th have been going on for more than 10 days. There is no sign of ending yet, but it has gradually escalated and gradually spread to other European countries. Although the French government put forward a number of measures to try to quell the riots as soon as possible, it seems difficult to work in the short term.

The riots highlighted the deep-seated contradictions in French society.

The outbreak of this riot was purely accidental, but its rapid spread and huge scale were surprising, which shattered the good impression of French social stability, multi-ethnic glory and multicultural integration in one fell swoop. This riot concentrated and fully exposed the outstanding problems of French society, mainly as follows:

First, the gap between the rich and the poor has widened.

France is a big industrial country in the west, but in recent years, due to the aging of social model and the intensification of global competition, the economic situation in France continues to deteriorate, which makes the social class division and the widening gap between the rich and the poor more and more obvious. In recent years, great changes have taken place in the social stratum of France. According to the census of 1999, ordinary employees and workers in France account for 56.9% of the total labor force, while senior cadres and "senior intellectuals" only account for 12. 1% of the labor force. The people who enjoy the fruits of French economic development are mainly the rich, and the national wealth is mainly concentrated in their hands. At the same time, there are more and more poor people, especially the extremely poor. According to statistics, about 3.7 million people in France live below the poverty line, and more than 6.5438+million people receive the minimum social resettlement fee, while the gap between the rich and the poor in Paris is as high as 654.38+00 times. At present, there are 6 million immigrants in France, accounting for110 of the French population, but most of them have poor living conditions and the unemployment rate is 2-3 times higher than that of the French, which is a "vulnerable group" that has been seriously ignored by society. They have been at the bottom of society and become the first victims and victims of the widening gap between the rich and the poor.

Second, apartheid is deeply rooted.

Most French immigrants come from North Africa and the Middle East, and most of them believe in Islam. When France first accepted these immigrants, it adopted the practice of building large-scale high-density residential areas in the suburbs, allowing immigrants to live together and dividing communities by ethnic groups. Immigrants stick to their social circles, their cultural and religious traditions for a long time, and it is difficult for them to communicate with the mainstream society, thus forming another "parallel society". The attitude of French society towards immigrants has also changed greatly in recent years. Many people blame immigrants for the disappearance of French national characteristics and poor economic situation, and have no intention of letting immigrants participate more in political life. This kind of injury not only aggravated the decline of immigrants' status in France, but also widened the gap between the "two societies".

In addition, due to the huge immigrant population, Islam has become the second largest religion in France. However, in recent years, due to the infiltration of Muslim radicals into Europe and the creation of terrorist incidents in Europe, the prejudice and misunderstanding of ordinary Muslim immigrants in France have deepened, and Muslims have been regarded as "heterogeneous" to prevent psychological aggravation.

Third, social harmony is seriously lacking.

Immigration has always been a social problem in France. Although successive French governments have emphasized the social integration of immigrants in the past 30 years and advocated improving their living conditions and giving them equal rights in education and employment, in fact, social integration measures are difficult to achieve practical results, enterprises treat immigrants differently in recruitment and employment, and immigrants' voting rights are not guaranteed for a long time. Immigrants don't get the "equality" they expect. They generally think that they are victims of social injustice and "second-class citizens" of France. They try to make irrational anti-social behavior and attract more attention from "another France". The descendants of these immigrants, because they come from the bottom of society, have poor family conditions, are young and out of school, lack survival skills, and their employment and life are extremely unstable. They feel abandoned by French society, but they have lost their "French heart" as French. They either steal, rob and deal drugs for a living, or they do nothing, make trouble in the streets and vent their dissatisfaction and hatred to society in the form of violence. According to the statistics of the French Ministry of the Interior, only before the riots this year, there were 70,000 urban violence incidents in France, of which 442 were gang fights and 28,000 cars were burned. However, these violent acts did not change their living conditions, but led to the antipathy of immigrants in the mainstream French society, and the desire of immigrants to integrate into the mainstream French society was even more difficult to realize.

It takes time for the riots to subside.

The continuous spread of this riot has brought great losses to French society. However, because it is the total outbreak of social contradictions accumulated in France for many years, it is not easy to expect to quell this big riot in a short time.

First, the situation of riots is severe and sensitive, which makes it more difficult for the government to effectively suppress chaos.

At present, the riots have spread to more than 300 towns in France, and the French government is trapped in many ways and is tired of coping. Mobs often go out at night, commit crimes, fight and run, and engage in guerrilla warfare with the police. Especially recently, it has developed into an organized and premeditated activity, in which some criminal groups are involved, making it more difficult to quell the chaos. In addition, since most of the rioters were of Muslim descent, the government was moderate, cautious and restrained in organizing counter-insurgency, and did not want to touch sensitive "national nerves" and was labeled as "racial discrimination". In fact, in the early days of the riots, Interior Minister Sarkozy used some radical remarks to call the people involved in the riots "hooligans" and "social scum". The public security police were rude when maintaining order, claiming to "raze the mosque" and throwing tear gas at a mosque. These unstable attitudes aroused the national sentiment of Muslim immigrants and led to more violent riots. In addition, the media revealed that the riots were manipulated by some unknown people. Although there is no conclusive evidence that Islamic militants are involved, this factor cannot be ruled out. This also makes the riots difficult to control.

Second, the disunity of the government delayed the best opportunity to quell the chaos.

When the riots broke out, on the one hand, because the situation was not serious, it did not attract the government's great attention. The interior minister took control of the town alone and soon achieved some results. Unexpectedly, the situation deteriorated sharply. Five days after the riots, the government declared a "state of crisis management", but the riots have become a prairie fire and are difficult to control. On the other hand, at the beginning of the riots, there were differences of opinion within the government, and government members accused each other of failing to quell the riots in time and effectively. In particular, French Prime Minister de Villepin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy are both strong contenders for the 2007 presidential election. In the process of quelling the riots, they inevitably have personal political ambitions, hoping to add points to their image by quelling the riots. Sarkozy fought alone, but de Villepin did nothing, and did not concentrate all his energy on the riots. Besides, the two of them don't agree. One faction advocates tough measures, while the other emphasizes moderate dialogue, which leads to problems in the coordination of the government's counter-insurgency policy and the situation escalates rapidly. Although the government has gone all out to increase the police force and put forward a series of plans aimed at solving suburban problems, the opportunity has passed and the riots are even more difficult to contain.

Third, social forces have not been fully mobilized.

First of all, both the Socialist Party, the left-wing parties such as the * * * Production Party and the far-right National Front have really played the role of "opposition parties", only content with "opposing" and criticizing government policies, trying to create a government crisis and realize their desire to come to power as soon as possible. Human rights organizations and trade unions also added fuel to the fire, calling on the government to take responsibility for the deterioration of social harmony. They are happy to "sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight", but they have not really organized themselves to assist the government in its work and strive to quell the riots as soon as possible.

Secondly, the numbness of French society also led to the mob's impunity. Some French people say that it is not surprising that such riots happen once every 10 year on average. Based on this understanding, the French are indifferent to the development of the riots, rather than actively mobilizing to support the government's repressive policies. Although Prime Minister de Villepin has received people from all walks of life many times and tried to ease the expansion of riots through dialogue, so far no obvious effect has been achieved.

The riots had a far-reaching impact.

This unprecedented riot will inevitably have a great impact on the future political and social life of France and exert a subtle influence on the development prospects of Europe.

For France, the main impacts are as follows:

First of all, France's immigration policy will be tougher. In recent years, France's immigration policy has undergone major changes, from tolerance to restriction. As early as two years ago, the Minister of the Interior put forward the policy of "selective immigration", choosing high-quality immigrants who are "useful" to France, and restricting the use of excuses such as family reunion and fake marriage to enter France. This riot will undoubtedly make this policy prevail in the government and society. In addition, the government will intensify efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants, expel more illegal immigrants, prevent radical Islamists from infiltrating France, and create new chaos for French security.

Secondly, the occurrence of riots will profoundly affect the French society's views on immigrants, discrimination may increase, and social and ethnic harmony will encounter greater problems.

Third, the riots have also found more evidence for the extreme right's "anti-immigration" remarks, won more sympathy for the extreme right forces and created more room for their development.

Finally, based on the need to quell the riots, members of the government temporarily reached a settlement, but after the riots, the competition between political opponents will intensify, and strive to quell the riots and accumulate more capital for the future presidential election.

From the perspective of Europe, the impact will be more obvious. At present, all European countries have the same immigration problems as France. The spread of riots in France shows that the security of the whole European continent is greatly challenged by the immigration problem. In addition to solving their own immigration problems and preventing social unrest, European countries will further strengthen policy coordination in the fields of immigration and justice and make new progress in their security policies. However, the negative impact of immigration riots on European integration cannot be ignored. Many European countries, such as France, have long been dissatisfied with the influx of immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe and the competition for jobs with Europeans brought about by the eastward expansion. The outbreak of immigration riots may increase Europeans' hostility to the further expansion of the EU. It is expected that the threshold of the EU will be raised, the time for Balkan countries and Turkey to join the EU will be lengthened, and the process of European integration will be slowed down.