Living apart or together with our differences?

Abstract

The traditional approaches of governments to citizenship, nationality and social relations have become obsolete or unfit in the face of the demands of more heterogeneous, multicultural and complex societies. This article argues that, in France, the persistence of xenophobic and neocolonialist attitudes and the strong belief that equal treatment for all is an adequate response have prevented state institutions from vigorously tackling discriminations with appropriate policies. Despite the growing ethnicization of social relations at work, school and in the neighbourhoods, the struggle against social inequality still dominates the public debate, thereby neglecting the specific harms suffered by long-settled postcolonial immigrants and their children. The latter have become the easy scapegoats of a perceived general societal malaise, and for this they are easily criminalized. The article argues that current timid institutional innovations observed here and there in France will only gain force if civil society becomes more open to negotiations about rights to the city and more tolerant of the expression of ethnic differences in public space.