A group of French students and workers, protesting against record youth unemployment and a lack of state help, are squatting at a mansion on one of Paris's oldest and most fashionable squares, the Place des Vosges. "Squatting here is maybe the best thing for my morale, but as far as the rest is concerned, I can't see a light at the end of the tunnel," said Margaux, a 24-year-old urban planning student at Paris University, who declined to provide her last name. "I'm struggling to find a home and in the future I know I will struggle to find a job. You'd be surprised how little there is for young people to look forward to in France."... Margaux and 30 other activists broke into and occupied the three-storey, 17th-century building late last month. With its high, carved and painted ceilings and oak floors, the stone mansion stands in same square where Victor Hugo, the author of "Les Miserables," once lived. It is also near a house owned by International Monetary Fund Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's wife Anne Sinclair. The squatters, who may be ejected by the police, will try to stay in the house, once owned by the Marquise de Sevigne, until winter ends in March. The 2,000 square-meter (21,528 sq- feet) house overlooking a manicured lawn and other red and white mansions with dark blue slate roofs, belongs to an 84-year-old French woman, who bought it in 1963 and has never lived in it. Hurting Youth Data from the French statistics office, Insee, shows that unemployment among people aged 15 to 24 rose at the fastest pace on record during the economic crisis, adding 6.5 percentage points between the first quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of this year. During the 1993 crisis, youth unemployment rose 3.3 percentage points.
"Squatting here is maybe the best thing for my morale, but as far as the rest is concerned, I can't see a light at the end of the tunnel," said Margaux, a 24-year-old urban planning student at Paris University, who declined to provide her last name. "I'm struggling to find a home and in the future I know I will struggle to find a job. You'd be surprised how little there is for young people to look forward to in France."...
Margaux and 30 other activists broke into and occupied the three-storey, 17th-century building late last month. With its high, carved and painted ceilings and oak floors, the stone mansion stands in same square where Victor Hugo, the author of "Les Miserables," once lived. It is also near a house owned by International Monetary Fund Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's wife Anne Sinclair.
The squatters, who may be ejected by the police, will try to stay in the house, once owned by the Marquise de Sevigne, until winter ends in March. The 2,000 square-meter (21,528 sq- feet) house overlooking a manicured lawn and other red and white mansions with dark blue slate roofs, belongs to an 84-year-old French woman, who bought it in 1963 and has never lived in it.
Hurting Youth
Data from the French statistics office, Insee, shows that unemployment among people aged 15 to 24 rose at the fastest pace on record during the economic crisis, adding 6.5 percentage points between the first quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of this year. During the 1993 crisis, youth unemployment rose 3.3 percentage points.
This is not to make light of youth employment problems in France or elsewhere, but this article is an exercise in giving another angle to a story.
The "Jeudi Noir" (Black Thursday) collective is about finding lodgings for young people, above all students. Student accommodation is a major problem principally because of the property bubble and the high rents it has caused, also because reliance on markets to allocate resources efficiently has led to non-investment in student residences etc (surprised?).
The building they are squatting in fact belongs to an old lady who is far from speculating on it (which the article doesn't state, but it's a quite likely subtext). It's a historical building that she has spent her money trying to renovate and maintain; today she has nothing but debts and is in a form of receivership. It seems her main worry is that the squatters may damage the most historically important parts of the building that she has managed to keep in good condition. The squatters have agreed not to use those rooms.
This, in an American business paper (from the American business environment that brought us the property bubble and greater unemployment thanks to the crisis) becomes a story about how youth has no future in France.
plus ça change...
