The report's findings, published in the newspaper Le Monde, are based on a study of living conditions in 630 suburban areas of the country. At least half of them, the authors note, have become separate ethnic communities where radical Islamic views are quite popular.
The study was commissioned by the national security services, and at its center is an extremely delicate question: how great is the degree of alienation of young Muslims from the rest of the French population?
For decades it was customary to believe that republican France was alien to multiculturalism — the coexistence of different ethnic traditions and approaches. The authorities hoped that the attractiveness of the French way of life would automatically turn newcomers into French over time. One illustration of this approach is the ban on wearing Muslim headscarves in schools (as well as symbols of other religions).
But this ban led to mass protests several months ago. And automatic integration, apparently, is not happening. In half of the studied areas, the authors of the report conclude, unemployment and a high crime rate flourish. Polygamous families are not uncommon. Residents of immigrant areas increasingly cease to follow the norms of secular French society, do not recognize its values, and even refuse to speak French.
"Sometimes, in addition to a retreat to the culture of their countries and rejection of Western values, a kind of negative cultural identity is formed, based on a mixture of ancestral culture, living conditions in poor typical housing estates, and primitive references to Islam," the authors write.
The document's authors emphasize that more and more immigrant families, or those born in France to North African parents, are choosing Islam as their spiritual guide, and the number of young Muslims professing anti-Western and anti-Semitic views, which are spread by radical Muslim preachers, is also increasing.
The document has not yet been officially published. However, many French people know about it without government reports. And for the authorities, the authors' conclusions will be very unpleasant. The government is already being accused of doing too little to prevent social isolation among immigrants and their descendants.
The authorities have proposed a special five-year program that will allow immigrants to better integrate into French society. But in this matter, the government will have to hurry.