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Escaping France's ghettoes
By Lucy Ash
BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents


France has one of the worst youth unemployment rates in Europe and jobseekers from ethnic minorities face an additional hurdle - racism.



Even with a masters degree Hamid Senni struggled to find work


Every year 15,000 people leave France to start a new life in the UK.

Most of them are young and go there looking for work.

A few years ago Hamid Senni was one of them.

The child of poor Moroccan immigrants, he learned about discrimination early on.

At school in France his history teacher said he should change his name to Lionel.

"I know that teacher meant well," he said.

"She was no racist but she told me that with Hamid as a first name I stood no chance in French society. Throughout my youth, what she said turned out to be true."

The son of a car factory worker in the south of France, Hamid is the eldest of eight children.

He said his father pushed him to study hard at school: "He told me, you are the needle and your brothers are the thread. If you succeed, your brothers will follow you, so get every qualification you can."

No future

Although Hamid followed this advice and got a good economics degree he could not find work, not even as an unpaid intern.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/6499999.stm