BURNING A Swedish flag to denounce the desecration of a Koran outside a Stockholm mosque, in Karachi, Pakistan, July 7. (credit: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)The end of the war in Europe in the late 1940s spawned a reconstruction process throughout the continent, led by France, which urgently needed a labor workforce. This necessity resulted in a large influx of Moroccans into the French job market. As the French economy experienced a recovery, the demand for this labor only increased.
Many of these immigrants intended to stay in France temporarily, yet their stay eventually lengthened. These people lived in run-down neighborhoods close to the capital of Paris and other large cities. They formed a distinct community that posed a challenge to local urban areas. Consequently, the decision was made to construct social housing to concentrate these individuals in one place. This move created a barrier between immigrants and mainstream French society, plunging second-generation immigrants into marginalization and alienation. With their parents clinging to ties to their countries of origin, members of this new generation had no homeland to which they could truly belong other than France. READ MORE