Earlier this summer, thousands of Paris' ethnic Chinese community took to the streets of Belleville, a district in the north of the capital, to call for increased security in the wake of escalating violence against them, including regular street assaults and robberies. The extent of the violence has alarmed community leaders and there is growing anger among this normally discreet population at what is perceived as insufficient concern by the authorities in their plight.
Emmanuel Ma Mung (photo), is Director of Research at the French National Scientific Research centre (the CNRS) and an expert on international migration and the Chinese diaspora, on which subjects he has published numerous books and articles. He is also a member of the MIGRINTER (Migrations internationales, espaces et sociétés) laboratory at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Poitiers. In this interview with Carine Fouteau, he explains the economic and social issues behind the problems now turning a once calm multi-cultural neighbourhood into a powder keg.
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Mediapart: How do you explain the anger of Belleville residents of Chinese origin? Has there been an increase in violence against them?
Emmanuel Ma Mung: For two or three years, a clear increase in assaults has been witnessed. We don't have precise statistics, but accounts are unambiguous. Previously there were allusions to violence, but they weren't associated with African or North African assailants. People of Chinese origin living in Paris are principally from Wenzhou in the southeast of China. The culture of protest is largely foreign to them.
The most influential organisations, those that structure the community, are groups of shopkeepers. They organise Chinese New Year, but that's all. Some of them have connections with the consulate or embassy. Organising demonstrations to express discontent is not part of their tradition. For this population to resort to marching on the street, to using this type of public gesture, the situation must have become unbearable.
Mediapart: Is this a problem of racism?
E.M.M.: The robberies seem to be perpetrated by groups of delinquents used to attacking individuals, who have become aware of the opportunity for striking out at people of Chinese origin. There is racism in Belleville, as there is everywhere else, but this doesn't seem to me to be the determining factor. For the assailants, the Chinese above all present easy pickings. They don't attack them as Chinese, but as what they perceive as easy prey.
Mediapart: Why are they seen as ‘easy prey'?
E.M.M.: Progressively, the word must have got round that these people are apt to carry sums of cash on them. A lot of shopkeepers prefer to be paid in cash, and carry their takings away with them in the evening, when they close their shop or restaurant. Many employees are paid more modest sums in cash, because it's simpler. Moreover, people in irregular situations [Editor's note: without official ID or working permits] don't have bank accounts, and therefore also carry cash around with them. Furthermore, those without papers hesitate to file complaints with the police, because they fear being questioned and deported.
Finally, for weddings, one respected custom involves giving cash to the newlyweds. This can amount to tens of thousands of euros, each guest, family or friend, bringing an envelope of 200 to 300 euros, or much more. On Saturdays and Sundays, there's a lot of money going round. For a long time this tradition was little known outside the community. People discussed it among themselves, that's all. But word clearly got out. And yet it's an established procedure and people do take precautions. The money is placed in brief cases and transported in the care of certain people. That suggests that the aggressors have acquired a certain savoir-faire, and above all information. In this context, we're not talking about simple cases of mugging.
Mediapart: How do you explain the fact that the discontent is focusing on questions of security?
E.M.M.: Insecurity is the factor that triggered the demonstration, but the issue covers a wider concern connected to economic and social preoccupations. With the economic crisis, things are going less smoothly, companies are no longer creating jobs. The drop in consumption has had direct effects on restaurant owners, some of whom have converted to takeaway catering. Manufacturing workshops are also on the decline. The end of textile quotas resulted in a loss of competitiveness, including for those who used to employ illegal workers.
It's now more lucrative to import products from China. Indeed, many are switching to importing, which can be noted in the increase of warehouses in Aubervilliers [a northern suburb of Paris]. But this reorganisation doesn't change the fact that there's less demand for labour; and yet immigration, legal or not, continues because the pressure to emigrate still exists in the countries of origin.
In Belleville, insecurity is also a social issue. You see Chinese who have just arrived and have nothing. On the boulevard, there are often makeshift flea markets, where objects salvaged from bins in rich neighbourhoods are sold. The prostitution of women is also rife. These women aren't professionals, in the sense that they weren't prostitutes in China. They've been reduced to it because they have no other source of income. This manifestation of poverty didn't exist a few years ago. The economic system no longer absorbs recent immigration, the provenance of which has changed to a degree.
Since the early 2000s, many have arrived from north-eastern China, where major industries have closed down. These people are poor and often work for Chinese people from Zhejiang (1). When they're lucky enough to find work. Moreover, police checks on employers who take on people without work permits are more and more strict. Some have served up to six months in prison, which means that the possibility of finding work on the black is diminishing.
Mediapart: Can the demonstration be seen as a sign of integration?
E.M.M.: This demonstration has brought about new organisations, which are more active than those that traditionally structure the community. The older organisations, which didn't take part, have clearly defined roles: there are those that offer assistance, often created by French people, providing support, help with administrative procedures and French lessons. Then there are shopkeeper clubs that defend their interests in relation to official bodies, and organise Mandarin lessons. Above all, they have an internal importance in terms of business organisation: they get together, organise big meals where they network.
The new organisations, as yet little known, offer a different face. They've managed to get thousands of people to march, which is an exploit in itself. According to one hypothesis, they're building on the demonstrations for people without papers at the end of 1990s, [...]. These struggles for regularisation [obtaining residency and working papers] have brought them the necessary savoire-faire and confidence to express themselves in the public space. But this is only an hypothesis. Another detail: the high proportion of young people on the demonstration. Born in France, or having arrived as young children, they've had all their schooling here, and speak perfect French. Some of them may also have experience of student protest movements.
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1: Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province that has become rich on what has been dubbed the ‘Zhejiang model' of entrepreneurship, with small companies producing low cost goods in bulk for domestic consumption and export.
English version: Chloé Baker(Editing by Graham Tearse)