The banlieue refers to the area surrounding a French city, commonly used in reference to Paris. There is an implicit tendency to compare the banlieues with the American suburbs, but there are important differences.
In the United States the word suburb carries a positive connotation associated with private property, middle-class ease, low-density population, and an overall high quality of life.
In contrast, the immediate connotation of the French banlieue and its inhabitants, the banlieue-sards , is one of overcrowded public housing, people of color, new immigrants, and crime. It is something closer to the stereotype of the ghetto in the United States; what is common to the French banlieue and the American ghetto are the aspects of categorical inequality, exclusion from the labor market, and social boundaries resulting in residential segregation.
Today, the word banlieue carries a negative connotation; yet this hardly approximates the complex history and social reality of these spaces. The importance of the banlieue can be fully understood only in a historical perspective and in relation to the city to which it is a periphery. Like many medieval cities, Paris was a walled city for defensive purposes.
As the city grew, new walls were constructed, totaling six. In the years preceding the French Revolution a new wall was built, but this time it was built mainly for taxation purposes. The wall demarcated Paris proper. Its doors included custom posts, and everyone entering or leaving with commercial goods had to pay a tax or right of passage called the octroi. This physical barrier to free trade and mobilityβ mur d'octroi β created a real boundary between those living inside intra-muros and those living outside extra-muros , which had economic consequences for trade and production.
