Illegal 'bizzness' booms

2005-11-10 16:01

Paris - Moussa, 22, lives in Evry, 30km south of Paris. He has neither a high school diploma nor a job, but he has money. Asked what he does for a living, he says "bizzness".

In the high-rise ghettos that ring French cities, "bizzness" takes many forms.

Some are: stealing cars, disguising them, and selling them; stealing TVs, and selling them; attaching brand-name labels to inferior clothes - or making cheap copies of brand-name clothes - and selling them.

There is also illegal labour, money laundering and, of course, drug dealing.

According to Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union, the underground economy that flourishes in the shadows of the grim concrete housing projects around cities like Paris, Lyon and Marseille accounts for up to 14% of France's GDP.

The French government knows that. But it lacks the manpower for more than sporadic shows of force, such as when the interior minister, accompanied by TV cameras, views "booty" confiscated by French police.

Car theft is a prime example. According to the financial newspaper La Tribune, nearly 700 000 cars were stolen in France between May 2002 and October 2005. Police recovered just 1 200.

Government turns a blind eye

Moussa and his pals make good money, and they are not shy about showing it.

Moussa wears brand-new brand-name sneakers. He carries a state-of-the-art mobile telephone in a pocket of his baggy track pants. He also stays in touch via the internet - on his personal computer at home.

The underground economy sustains many large immigrant families in France's suburban high-rises, where 10 or more people often share two- or three-room flats.

They shop at the black markets, which are the only places that offer the basic items they need - such as household supplies and clothing - at affordable prices.

Sociologists call such markets the "social safety net of last resort". Without them, the suburbs would descend fully into chaos. The authorities know that, and look the other way.

Abject poverty

For the average citizen of a highly industrialised country like France, it is hard to imagine children in their midst going hungry, or fellow countrymen and -women who cannot afford a ticket for a bus or streetcar.

Such people exist, however. Throwing conventional ethics to the wind because of their grinding poverty, they see nothing wrong with selling stolen goods or dealing drugs.

The biggest beneficiaries of this state of affairs, however, are the gang leaders and drug dealers, who use the young and poor for their own profit.

The criminal bosses, known and respected in the whole neighbourhood, have jobs to pass out: disguising stolen cars, for instance, or keeping lookout for the approach of a rival gang.

Official statistics show that more than five million people live in France's economically fragile suburbs, and that families there earn less than €900 a month on average.

Discrimination

Unemployment, about 10% nationwide, is double that amount in the country's troubled areas, and even as high as 50% among young people in some places.

The French may not like to talk about it, but there is daily discrimination in the labour market.

"If your resume says your place of residence is Mantes-la-Jolie, and your name looks Arab, then you can forget about your job application," says Aziz Senni, a Moroccan.

Senni, who was born on the outskirts of Lyon and has five brothers and sisters, said the secret of his success was going to school and working hard.

Today he heads a transport company. Senni wrote a book about his life with the affecting title "The lift of social advancement is stuck, so I took the stairs". - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA