France: David is one of the lucky few in Meinau who have a college diploma, writes Jamie Smyth. A qualified machinist, going on to third level education enabled him to make a new circle of friends and open up the possibility of a bright future.
But like almost a third of those living in the Meinau suburb of Strasbourg he can't find a job.
"I am looking for any work I can get, not just what I am qualified for," says David (22), whose parents came to France from the Congo. "I've even looked for a job in places like MacDonalds but I've had a lot of negative answers."
Employers often automatically reject job applications posted from the poorer suburbs, says David, who does not want to be identified. "Even white people are discriminated against if they have the wrong address," he says.
Unemployment is a huge social problem in France where about 11 per cent of the population cannot find a job. But in the rundown suburbs of the main cities, where most immigrants live in vast areas of social housing, joblessness is chronic.
Strasbourg is no different. Neuhof, Meinau and Hautepierre all suffer extremely high unemployment rates, particularly among the young school-leaving population.
"There are few jobs here," says Mustafa Ahmed, a Hautepierre resident whose family originally came from Morocco. "Years ago, people who immigrated to France came for jobs and to go to work but now the young third generation have no jobs." Unsurprisingly, most of the recent unrest in Strasbourg was concentrated in these suburbs, where youths clashed with police and burnt scores of cars.
Jean-Luc Kaneb, co-ordinator of the Maison des Potes group in Meinau, which aims to help young people to find work, cites educational disadvantage, lack of mobility and discrimination as the main problems facing local people. "About 30 per cent of people leave school without a diploma in this area and just 20 per cent go on to university. That is almost the exact opposite of the national average in France."
Politicians and media who blame immigration or religious tension for the current problems are wide of the mark. Rather, it is 20-30 years of unemployment, poor education and a failure of the state to address the social concerns of residents that is the problem, says Kaneb, who has lived in Meinau all his life.
"It's also important to realise that not all young people commit these acts of violence. It really is just a very small part of the population," he says. "This is not some sort of civil war, the problem is that there are no jobs for young people."
But a failure to integrate young immigrants, and particularly Muslims into French society, is raising serious questions about the State's ideals of liberté, fraternité and égalité.
At the prestigious journalism school at Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg, the next generation of opinion formers debate the reasons for the violence.
"Rich people are living in their cosy quarters and the poor people are stuck in poor neighbourhoods," says Gregory Lesca (22), who acknowledges there are no Muslims in his class. "How can you have hope in the future when you have nothing?"
"In the republic, difference is seen as a handicap to go further. The state doesn't want people to express differences in public such as religious symbols," says fellow student Emilie Defay, in a reference to the ban on wearing the veil at school. "But for these people it can be seen as a way of repressing them."
Back in the suburbs the violent reaction to the culture of exclusion is forcing French policy makers to rethink how they deal with immigration and poverty.
In Strasbourg this week the mayor unveiled €215 million urban development plan for Neuhof and a new job seekers programme to help people find work.
For young job seekers like David, change can't come quickly enough.