Although the deaths of the two teenagers were the nominal trigger for the last two weeks of rioting in France, the causes of these riots are many and interrelated.

Perhaps most important is what did not cause the riots. First, these riots are not related to any concept of jihad or intifada and have no Islamic justification. Numerous French and American newspapers have postulated that the French riots could be Europe’s equivalent of the Palestinian intifada in Israel. This is absolutely absurd for the sole reason that only half of the rioters are Muslim. Additionally, most Islamic groups are trying to calm the violence.

A second misconception is that these riots have been coordinated. Police intelligence has stated that although youths have been organizing riots by email and text messages on a town by town basis, there is no overarching organization behind the efforts. Additionally, nearly all the violence has been carried about by rival gangs, which hate each other as much as they hate the police, so it is unlikely that these gangs would ever organize for one cause. James Graff, a French correspondent for Time magazine, explains that the rapid spread of violence throughout France has been caused by a competition between gangs, a mentality of “if they could burn 40 cars, we can burn 50.” Additionally, he observes that there is no positive call for action, only a need for destruction..

Further evidence that these riots have no goal is that setting cars on fire sends no particular message. If rioters wished to send a message, attacks would be made on particular businesses or graffiti would accompany these acts. Additionally, the rioting youths are creating the most graphically pleasing shows of destruction, parked cars exploding in flames, rather than directly threatening people’s lives. Similarly, this destruction cannot bring police to use lethal force, since civilians are not endangered. All of these factors point towards the idea that these riots are a competition between gangs and not truly for any cause.

But there are real reasons for this havoc. The largest factor appears to be France’s economy. France has long touted its socialist, planned economy, as superior to America’s laissez faire model, yet the policies enacted by its government have caused massive unemployment. France’s national unemployment rate is 10%. The French labor force is highly unionized and highly regulated. Employers cannot layoff workers at will; in order to enact layoffs they must be able to demonstrate that the French economy, not necessarily the company, is in a sufficiently severe economic condition. Additionally, there are abnormally high severance payments that French employers must pay after firing employees. These laws encourage employers to hire the minimum number of employees they need, because they are basically prohibited from firing them in hard times. In essence, French policies encourage unemployment even in times of economic growth.

Unionized workers are also stringently guaranteed high benefits. Since 2002, all French workers have had a mandated 35-hour workweek, generous overtime, specific lengths of vacation, and varying other benefits. In order to get around these benefits, employers have been creating many paid and unpaid “internships,” which do not get these same benefits, are easy to terminate, and usually have high turnover. This has created what economists term an “insider-outsider” labor market, which has strongly contributed to the 23% unemployment rate of job-seekers under 22. Unemployment rate among suburban youth, the core demographic of the French rioters, is nearly 40%. Even more shocking is the fact that 70% of all new contracts are temporary and for youth 80% of those last less than a month.

The second reason for the riots is rampant discrimination. France claims to be a color-blind society that does not ask questions about race or religion. But it fails miserably in the effort to remain indifferent to race. Beyond the simple observation that most of the poor are immigrants, there is other strong evidence that discrimination is present. According to the BBC, the unemployment rate for French university graduates is of 5%, compared to a 26.5% unemployment rate for university graduates of North African background. Additionally, a study by SOS Racisme, a non-profit organization promoting racial equality, found that resumes with African or Muslim-sounding names were often rejected, while identical resumes with European-sounding names had much more success. Furthermore, even zip codes have been used to stereotype job applicants. Because of the de facto ghettos in place, certain zip codes, like 93390 (Clichy-sous-Bois), have become a liability on a resume. This situation has obviously has created great resentment among Muslim and African minorities.

Also, these minorities view the French government itself as being discriminatory and hostile. Two days before the riots broke out, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy gave a speech in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil saying that crime-ridden neighbourhoods (referring to these poor suburbs) should be "cleaned with a power hose" and describing violent elements as "gangrene" and "rabble". Although Sarkozy is correct in the intent of his speech that crime should be reduced in these poor neighborhoods, his words made it appear that he was denigrating African and Muslim minorities. Besides this recent flash-point, there has been a long lasting belief among these minorities that police harassment of minorities is common, a claim that remains unconfirmed.

Additionally, France’s broad reaching legislation to support secularization has been taken with great offence by the Muslim community. Last year’s widely publicized ban on religious symbols in public schools, most notably banning Muslim headscarves, is viewed as directly attacking Muslim beliefs, further instilling a sense of hostility between native and immigrant French. Although this is clearly not a central cause of the riots, it contributes to a sense of detachment from the rest of French society.

It is important to note that there isn’t one reason in particular that caused these riots. High unemployment, socio-economic immobility, the prevalence of gangs, and both actual and perceived discrimination, all fed into a sense of helplessness and detachment from the idealized French image. In order to prevent similar riots from happening again, France must make reforms in these areas. The French government must take steps stimulate true job growth, which would most easily be done by reducing labor restrictions, enabling employers to hire more workers and make it easy to start a business, ending the current “insider-outsider” economy. France also must stringently enforce already existing anti-discrimination laws. The government should also take a hands-off approach to religion and act as a neutral agent by enforcing neither secularity nor religion in public buildings. Finally, and most importantly, the police must crack down on gangs and illegal drug dealing, which should go without saying. Without these reforms, France’s economy and society will drift further into decay. A future intifada is likely – not from the fundamentalists, but from the discontented.