Day 5 Interviews

Today's assignment was to get the group together to devise interview questions for local residents of Aubervilliers. The participants planned to enter into the center of the town and ask people questions about discrimination and their experience of living in Paris. There was very mixed feedback from the group about the kind of responses they were met with. Some participants said that people were very friendly, some were not and quite a lot of people were too scared to answer any questions out of fear that they were from the government or immigration officials. In this area, there were no French people willing to answer questions so they were only able to conduct interviews with people from Algeria, Tunisia, Syria, Morocco and Mali. Apart from one teacher, everyone they met were either unemployed or had low level jobs (e.g workers in shops or cafes).   The teacher that Mounir met with was a Syrian women who wears a hijab. She said that the school that she works at always puts her last to speak in meetings, and if they overrun she gets cut and isn't allowed to speak. The school that her children attend is a government funded school and she explained how her children never get invited on the school trips. When the school have to correspond with the family, they request the father as they don’t have a problem with the family being foreign but their issue is with her wearing a hijab.  Hassan met with a 40 year old man from Mali, Africa who is unemployed, homeless and has been in Paris for three years. Back in Mali he has a wife and children and he left to France for work, so that he could return with money and give his family a better life. Although France had not been the land of opportunities and dreams that he had perceived it to be in Africa. When asked about whether he thinks discrimination exists in Paris he replied ‘definitely’ and when pushed for an example he said there were too many to chose from. He was saying to Hassan that in Mali he was a well respected, educated man and at least he had a place to sleep but in France he doesn’t get help from anybody. Now he is too ashamed to go home; to have to face his family after he promised them a better life and admit its been three years and still he is unemployed and homeless. He’s seen many African men die in the winter on the streets of Paris and he fears this winter he will be next. When asked about refugees in Paris he replied that there was no fair treatment for anyone seeking asylum here. He faces a lot of racism daily from French people. Hassan went on to ask about whether or not Muslims in particular face any sort of discrimination. The man’s response was that since the recent terror attacks there has been a lot of Islamophobia amongst French people but for him, he knows only good Muslims and cannot believe the discrimination that he sees. Although he did note that the stigma around wearing a hijab is vanishing in his opinion, in the sense that the laws surrounding hijab wearing are diminishing and it is becoming more common to see women wearing them. His main goal now is just to somehow get some money to buy a ticket back to Mali and be with his family again.  Anas spoke to a couple from Algeria, who arrived in France six years ago. The woman was a housewife who wears a hijab. She explained to Anas how she thinks racism exists but it doesn’t affect her daily life and this is mainly down to how the different cultures in Paris don’t tend to mix. She spends most of her time in Arab communities and therefore doesn’t experience the same discrimination daily, as when she travels to the center of Paris. They both went on to speak about how they think that religious groups (mainly Muslims) are targeted more than ethnic groups in terms of discrimination. Their experience of France has been generally very anti-religion, so anyone who expresses their religion openly (for example, wearing a hijab) is
ostracised from society. The woman gave an example that she often finds when she travels to and from the center with her daughter in a push chair. No one ever offers to help her get on and off buses, but she always sees women who aren’t in hijabs receiving help. "It creates an atmosphere that becomes very US and THEM,” she went on, “but it doesn’t affect me too much. I am comfortable with my religious identity and my faith keeps me strong.” She believes that French people in general hate Muslims, and white people will never know what it’s like to be discriminated against as a Muslim. That is why she stays in her community and tries not to mix with any French communities.  Out of all of the interviews that were conducted, 16 out of 20 people were unemployed and/or homeless, 3 worked in shops or cafes and one woman was a teacher. The poverty and quality in Aubervilliers is at a very dangerous point. It’s astonishing to believe that Aubervilliers is just half an hour from the Eiffel Tower. The wealth and opportunity distribution in Paris is completely unjust and it’s been very hard to talk to people who came to Paris in order to have a better life than the one in their home country and instead were met with sleeping on the streets and racism.  The man that Jameela spoke to was an Algerian man who identified as Muslim. He didn’t have a lot to say apparently, apart from that he feels like racism is increasing in this country and he feels specifically targeted because of his religion. When Jameela asked what he thought the solution to discrimination was he said 'we must view people primarily as human beings. Not define them by race or religion or background but first see everyone as a human being