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Seine-Saint-Denis


krusty

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Yes my late french teacher friend worked in a large collège there for many years and used to tell us how deprived the area was and how dangerous it could be for her to be driving alone when finishing a parent's evening late.
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I agree - those who believe that France does not share the inner-city problems of England and most other countries should go there. You travel through it on the train from Paris centre to Charles de Gaulle airport (the airport in fact straddles three départements, Seine-Saint-Denis being one). The airport, and other developments in the département such as the Stade de France, seem not to have brought a lot of regeneration. It seems still as run-down as when I took my life into my hands seveal years ago by visiting the former SEMT-Pielstick engine works (now mostly transferred to MAN in Germany). I am not sure why this should be - in England our house is not far from Gatwick, which has brought high employment and considerable prosperity to Crawley which also has a fairly high ethnic population.

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I agree, Will !  The people who don't believe France has the same inner city problems as, for example, the UK, probably don't watch French TV either !  They would soon see that St Denis and Bobigny are less than savoury places.  Mr Callie had to go and see a client there just after one of the attacks on vehicles....  Morale in the the local population is very low, and, as you say, it is unfortunate that there seems to be little employment.  I do believe, however, that the ethnic population is probably higher than in the Gatwick area - not that that should necessarily have anything to do with the last of jobs in the area.

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[quote user="Callie"]I do believe, however, that the ethnic population is probably higher than in the Gatwick area...
[/quote]

I'd certainly agree with that, at least from visual observation. Wikipedia (admittedly not always an accurate source) suggests over 40% of the population is Muslim, whereas it's more like 16% of Crawley's population that comes from ethnic minorities. Not, as you rightly say, that it should make a difference, but...

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