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Rabat – Another night of unrest and protest in France saw 45,000 police officers make 1,311 arrests as protests over the police shooting of a 17-year old show little sign of slowing down.
The mother of the unfortunate victim that sparked this week’s tumultuous protests today told France 5 that the police officer who shot her child “saw a little Arab-looking kid, he wanted to take his life. A police officer cannot take his gun and fire at our children, take our children’s lives.”
That sentiment is shared by thousands of protesters in France who have continued to exert pressure on the French government to demand justice for the Algerian boy. Clashes between police and protesters left streets in disarray in Marseille, Paris and other cities where the country’s impoverished neighborhoods, the banlieues, have ignited with outrage over the slaying of 17-year old Nahel.
The ongoing protests have led to the cancellation of large public events in Paris, and organizers of the country’s famous Tour de France cycling event are likely to have to adapt to the current context in France’s streets.
A European-problem
The ongoing unrest in France is likely to worry politicians across Europe, where decades of growing xenophobia and islamophobia, fueled by economic hardship and populist politics, have created a potential power keg among disenfranchised communities across the European bloc.
As protests rage in France, Sweden sparked its own controversy by allowing the public burning of the Quran near local Muslim communities celebrating Eid al Adha, one of the most important religious festivals in Islam. Several Muslim-majority countries, including Morocco, have protested the Swedish decision.
In the Netherlands, the government this week banned the wearing of hijabs for police officers, undermining years of attempts to recruit a more inclusive and diverse police force. While the measure also bans the wearing of Christian crosses for on-duty police officers, the measure effectively restricts access to a career in law enforcement for the country’s large female Muslim population.
Growing need for foreign workers
The growing tensions between native Europeans and Europeans with an immigration background stand in stark contrast with the EU’s rapidly growing need for foreign workers, often actively recruited from the Muslim world. The bloc’s aging population is creating an ever-growing need for an influx of young talent to staff hospitals, retirement homes, and a variety of other companies in the private sector.
While European countries offer medical and technical graduates in North Africa a variety of perks and job guarantees to seduce them to come work in the north, the ongoing domestic political scene appears ill-suited to properly welcome the youth Europe needs to import.
“EU member states will increasingly introduce policies to reduce illegal immigration while adapting migrant flows to specific economic needs,”a recent GIS report concludes, highlighting that both Germany and France are making it easier for people to immigrate, if they have the skills the country needs.
Europe’s current predicament means that politicians on one hand attempt to feed increasingly mainstream xenophobia among their voter base, while desperately attempting to supplement their aging populations with young foreign talent to keep domestic industries going. Without a shift and a more welcoming approach to the different cultures these workers come from, France’s current tensions could gradually become a Europe-wide problem.
