Marseille: a local exception within a global exception

Marseille, the highly diverse port city in the South of France is often portrayed as a multicultural Garden of Eden, a cosmopolitan melting pot where all people irrespective of creed or color live together mostly peacefully. The city engaged in an active attempt to reinvent itself socially and economically and adopted a mix of urban and social policies: starting to invest in deprived areas in the city center and the north that are mostly inhabited by migrants; trying new approaches to build relationships between the police and inhabitants of disenfranchised areas; engaging in interfaith projects run by the mayor; starting mentor projects to increase youth employment; voting Muslim political representatives into office; and engaging in an overall branding of Marseilles as a cosmopolitan city, celebrating the diversity with cultural festivities. It is an illusion to think that there can ever be a city without social friction, but this should not stop cities from trying to become a Garden of Eden.

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