In the square here on Saturday was a protest against the housing problem in France. It reminded me that when I first came to France some 17 years ago of protests in Paris outside the Sacre Couer about the fate of those “sans papiers”. It seems the issue has now moved on – and I suspect that it is broadly the same group of people – the immigrants and asylum-seekers – who are suffering.
The leaflet that I got points to this website, and says that the life expectancy of someone without permanent lodgement in France is 43 years, and there are 400,000 in that position.
It is noticeable too that – perhaps like any big city – Avignon has a very obvious group of rough sleepers/beggars – hard to tell if they concentrate in this tourist area for pickings, but it obviously has significant social problems, although none of these whom I’ve seen have been visibly from an ethnic minority.
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