Overview
In the fall of 2005 the streets of France were rocked by civil disturbances on a scale unseen for decades. Only months earlier Azouz Begag, France’s first minister for equal opportunities and first-ever cabinet minister of North African immigrant origin, wrote an essay laying bare the festering social and ethnic injustices that, as can now be seen in hindsight, led to the riots. This essay, published here for the first time, brilliantly documents the socioeconomic inequalities, ethnic discrimination, and political neglect that have bred a volatile generation of minority ethnic youths deeply distrustful of a society they believe has failed them. Blending autobiography with sociological and political analysis, Begag shows how social peace in France depends on transforming these disaffected youths into galvanized citizens. His insights into the malaise of France’s urban ghettos offer lessons for developed countries throughout the world—and hope for the similar challenges they face.Editorials
Foreign Affairs
Begag, France's first minister for equal opportunity and one of its first cabinet members of North African origin, has written a book that is part memoir, part sociological analysis, part policy prescription. (The book was actually written before he joined the government and before the widespread riots of November 2005 underscored the importance of its topic, but it is being published now for the first time.) The memoir recounts Begag's own experiences as an immigrant from Algeria who has felt the rage of a victim of racial profiling. The sociological analysis describes three types of Arab immigrants: those who actively try to overcome prejudice and succeed in society, those who give up and turn to crime or rebellion, and those in the middle, whose choices will determine the community's future. The policy prescription calls on France to face the reality that discrimination is rife and the "republican model" of assimilation is failing. The only remedy, he believes, is an active policy of promoting equal opportunity, such as that recently put in place by the elite Institute of Political Studies (known as Sciences Po). Begag left the French government in April 2007 and failed to get elected to parliament in June. That he would have been the only Arab in that parliament underscores why his ideas deserve a serious hearing.<