Banlieue

Banlieue of Tunis; Tunisia.

Banlieue of Erevan; Armenia

Example of a wealthy banlieue near Versailles (France) comparable to an U.S. suburb.

Banlieue of Clichy-sous-Bois; France

Banlieue (French pronunciation: [bɑ̃ˈljø]) is the French word for "outskirts." It comes from the two French words ban and lieue ("league", roughly four kilometers), and thus describes the zone around a city that is under the city's rule. The old French term was faubourg for suburb.

Some dictionaries translate banlieue as suburb, but while both the French word banlieue and the English word suburb both refer to residential areas on the outer edge of a city, in everyday usage their meanings can be quite different. In England, the word suburb generally connotes areas of low-density, detached or semi-detached housing, inhabited by the middle and upper classes, whereas in France the word banlieue is more frequently used to describe areas of low-income apartments and social housing. (Nonetheless, a banlieue may be rich or poor; Versailles, Le Vésinet, Orsay and Neuilly-sur-Seine are affluent banlieues of Paris, while Clichy-sous-Bois is a poor one.) Its colloquial equivalent in America would be "the projects". In the UK, equivalent terms would be a "Housing Estate" or "Council Estate". The major Parisian banlieues are currently home to the elite of Paris, including former president Jacques Chirac.

Euphemism

Since the 1970s and 1980s, the phrase les banlieues has been increasingly used as a euphemism to describe low-income housing projects in which mainly French of foreign descent or foreign immigrants reside, especially around Paris, but also some other large French cities. The new connotation of the word is mostly restricted to European French (shared with Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Monaco). In Africa, the word retains a neutral meaning and, in Quebec, it means suburb. The word also passed into the Turkish language as "banliyö" to describe a suburb and has a neutral meaning. Recently-coined terms used in politics, sociology, and the French media to describe banlieues with high levels of poverty, violence and drug trafficking include zones urbaines sensibles ("sensitive urban areas") and quartiers dits sensibles ("neighbourhoods deemed sensitive").

Banlieues rouges

The banlieues rouges ("red outskirts districts") are the outskirt districts of Paris where, traditionally, the French Communist Party held mayorships and other elected positions. Examples of these include Ivry-sur-Seine, and Châtillon. Such communities often named streets after Soviet personalities, such as rue Youri Gagarine.

Crime and unrest

Since the 1980s petty crime has increased in France,^{[citation needed]} much of it blamed on juvenile delinquency fostered within the banlieues. As a result the banlieues are perceived to have become unsafe places to live,^{[citation needed]} and youths from the banlieues are perceived to be one important source of increased petty crimes and uncivil behaviour.^{[citation needed]} As a result of this criminality, the Front National, a far right political party led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, rose to prominence during the early 1990s on a platform of tougher law enforcement and immigration control.

Violent clashes between hundreds of youths and French police in the Paris banlieue of Clichy-sous-Bois began on 27 October 2005 and continued for more than seventeen nights.^{[citation needed]} The 2005 Paris suburb riots were triggered by the deaths of two teenagers who were, allegedly, attempting to hide from police in an electrical substation and were electrocuted.^[1]

In the summer of 1981, dramatic events involving young Franco-Maghrebis brought about many different reactions from the French Public^[2]. Within the Banlieues, events called rodeos would occur, where young "banlieusards" would steal cars and perform stunts as well as race them. Then, before the police could catch them, they would abandon the cars and set them on fire.^[2] During July and August 1981 around 250 cars were vandalized. Shortly after this incident, grass roots groups began to demonstrate in public in 1983-1984 to publicise the problems of the Beurs and immigrants in France. In doing so, North Africans, specifically Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians, Arabs, and Berbers, in France began to develop a stronger identity unified by the problems that have been imposed on them economically and politically. The banlieue became a unifying point to the marginalized immigrants of France, despite the fact that there are various identities that constitute these individual groups. "We don't consider ourselves completely French...Our parents were Arabs...We were born in France (and only visited Algeria a few times)...So what are we? French? Arab? In the eyes of the French we are Arabs...but when we visit Algeria some people call us immigrants and say we've rejected our culture. We've even had stones thrown at us." ^[2] Overall the displacement of identities that Franco Maghrebi's feel becomes a unifying factor in French society and assimilation is particularly difficult because of their placement in the banlieue, and the French's refusal to assimilate due to the violence portrayed at events such as in the summer of 1981.

See also

• Aire urbaine
• District B13 / Banlieue 13 An action film set in the fictional Banlieue 13 (District 13) of Paris in 2013, where the protagonist is tasked with locating and deactivating a nuclear weapon that presumably has been stolen by a powerful gang thirsty for absolute control over the district.
• La Haine, a film by Mathieu Kassovitz about the disaffected youth and police brutality in the French banlieues.

References

External links

• (French) Audio book (mp3) of the introduction and first chapter of Éric Maurin's book : Le ghetto français, enquête sur le séparatisme social
• So long, Marianne on burning girls and burning cars in France by Alice Schwarzer at signandsight.com]
• The price of disdain French author François Bon has spent years giving writing workshops to youths in the suburbs that are now being set ablaze. He looks critically at where the violence originated and with despair at where it is headed, at signandsight.com
• French Riots Special A dossier with four related feature articles as well as a comprehensive collection of international voices from In Today's Feuilletons and the Magazine Roundup of sighandsight.com
• From Paris to Cairo: Resistance of the Unacculturated
• Website featuring underground rap music from the banlieues.
• Troubled Suburbs Erupt Again