Segregation is probably a more chronic problem there than it is or was ever here.
But Saint-Denis is not a rich neighborhood.
It's what the French call a "banlieue."
Literally translated, the word means "suburb," but
it has come to be associated with the depressed, mostly
immigrant neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city
where unemployment is high and opportunity scarce.
"If you look at the situation of people, you
understand the path they have taken to become a
terrorist or whatever you call it," Villain told
CBS News correspondent Vladmir Duthiers. "Exclusion
makes the terrorist, in my opinion."
.
.
.
The French government does not keep statistics
based on race or religion, but surveys have found
unemployment is as high as 30 percent in these immigrant
neighborhoods.[1]
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/paris-banlieues-seeds-of-terror...
Segregation in France is absolutely nothing like what you see in America where, outside three or four major cities, different races, no matter how rich or poor, are absolutely cordoned off from one another and do not ever attend the same schools [1]. If you actually go to Saint-Denis you will find everything from Russian Jews to Moroccan Muslims to Nigerians to good ol' fashioned ("from before Napoleon took over the world") French families. It's an extremely diverse hood, the kind you'd only saw 30 years ago in America's largest cities.
[1] https://www.vox.com/2018/3/5/17080218/school-segregation-get...
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/16/segreg...