"These high-rise neighborhoods, built in the 1950s and 1960s to house a growing population of industrial workers and immigrants, have become near-ghettos where unemployment is high, public services are poor, and resentment boils.
During the 2005 riots, some 300 buildings and 10,000 cars were burned, while 130 police and rioters were hurt.
Since then, unrest has flared often after residents have run ins with the police.
Police and government officials have a lingering fear that the poor suburbs could explode again because the underlying causes – high unemployment, few opportunities, drug trafficking and a sense of exclusion from society – have changed little"
From the article, underlines are my own. It sounds to me like significant segments of the populace perceive their lot to be one where they have little hope to effect change though legitimate means; where they feel they are treated with disrespect as a matter of status; they cannot receive justice under the law; and likely feel that the government does not represent them or their interests (ie, lacks legitimacy as in regard to them). This is the witch's brew from which most insurgency comes.
No amount of increased policing (enforcing the rule of law) or increased governmental handouts will likely quell this, and can likely make it worse. The time for COIN is long before these things exceed the capacity of the civil authorities. The government of France must recognize the need to change, and then adjust how it engages and supports these elements of the populace; much as the US Government had to do with the African American populace in the 60s, if they want to avoid sliding deeper into the conditions from which full-blown insurgency can erupt.
Bookmarks