The French (youth) in trouble?

(social issue) I found this very interesting article about the stories of young people in despair, part of the BBC radio programmes called Crossing Continents. What do these people interviewed have in common? They are all of African or Arabian descendance or have been staying in the suburbs (banlieues) of a big city in continental France. They have educated themselves and acquired university degrees, but yet this wasn’t enough for a smooth integration in the society and in the work market. They have all tried their chance either in another EU country, where they achieved getting a job within some days, or they tried to be innovative and with the use of their entrepreneual spirit sat up their businesses in France or abroad.

Although they have have the drive to succeed and integrate, there are big issues that lie on the way. So where does the problem lie?

In addition I would like to give this link to a very interesting article found in Time Magazine, where the youth of France cries out for changes in order to make the market more flexible and open to new ideas, instead of being conservative, afraid of changing the old “recipe” and becoming a victim of its’ own globalisation-fear.

The need for a different mentality, more open to innovators, has created a wave of young minds moving to the UK, Spain, Germany or even beyond the European boarders to places such as North America and Japan.

These two subjects, part of a bigger problem in France concerning unemployment and the state of the French market, are main issues in the campaigns of the stronger (according to polls) candidates for the presidential elections such as Ségolène Royal, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Bayrou. These issues are approached in a different way by each candidate and this is what the people in France are going to vote, which approach will according to them give the best result (or at least I hope they will!).

But maybe these two articles should alert the rest of Europe. We are reading for the succesful Nordic model, the positive trends in the UK economy and the Irish tiger, but yet what about the younger minds and integration of immigrants. For some years now, many EU countries have been complaining for the growing numbers of younger minds moving across the borders of the continent to the US or Asia without any plans of returning back. Maybe we should instead focus on these people with fresh ideas that will enable the national economies of the European continent to flourish or continue flourishing, instead of loosing them to “rival” economies and markets. Should we wait, or should we take action?