In our article on "Vieille Charité - poorhouse turns into a museum" we had already touched on the topics of poverty, crime and homelessness, which are still an obvious problem for the city of Marseille today, even if you don't really notice it as a tourist. Because: Marseille has a bad reputation.

Even though the city was the European Capital of Culture in 2013, which brought many improvements - Marseille is still considered the most dangerous city in the country: crime, drugs, violence and neighbourhoods that you'd better not enter.

As already mentioned at the beginning, as a tourist you hardly notice anything about the gang crime in the north of Marseille. The only thing is that as soon as you arrive, you are warned about pickpockets from several sources, for example by security guards at the airport, on the bus or in the metro. The numerous cameras everywhere are of course noticeable. But this is no different in many large cities.

Immigrants and poverty from the Maghreb states in the cityscape

Since the 1950s, Marseille has been characterized by immigration from the Maghreb; the immigrants were mostly poor, unemployed or only found work in the "informal" economy, which is also known as the shadow economy. The informal economy is the part of an economy whose economic activities are not recorded in official statistics.

The Maghreb is the name given to the historical region in northwest Africa on the Mediterranean, with the present-day states of Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Western Sahara, which have a lot in common with France due to their geography and history. Libya and Mauritania are also sometimes included in this region. In these countries, the production and sale of products on local markets and simple services are part of life. The informal sector only increases a country's GDP indirectly, as the added value in this area can lead to increased sales in the formal sector.

The working relationships in the shadow economy are therefore fundamentally different from those in the formal sector:

• little or no separation of the production factors labour and capital: self-employment and cuenta propia (working on one's own account) are common.
• no legal personality of the company; owners are private households or private individuals
• no formalization of employment relationships: employment contracts are usually concluded verbally and only for an extremely short period of time.
• withdrawal of state control: labour protection laws, continued payment of wages in the event of illness, protection against dismissal or minimum wages do not apply due to the lack of employment contracts.
• social insurance such as pension, health, unemployment or accident insurance hardly exists.
• informal employment relationships can hardly be recorded statistically, either in terms of their number or their income.
• low organizational level and small production units, employment of family members

No wonder then: Marseille is considered dangerous simply because of the employment situation

Drug crime plays a major role, particularly in the northern residential areas. Drug trafficking often secures the income of entire families. Cohesion within and between immigrant groups has become more fragile, there is a lack of social structure, which encourages crime. From 2007, 350 police jobs were cut. From 2012 to 2019, the number of police officers rose from 220 to 450. Since 2018, work has also begun on setting up a video surveillance system. The city police now monitor public spaces in the city center around the clock with around 1,600 video cameras (as of around 2021).

Neglected living space - also a reason

On November 5, 2018, two dilapidated residential buildings on Rue d'Aubagne in the central Noailles district collapsed, killing eight people. This made a wider public aware of a problem that had been around for a long time. The increased controls and reports that followed led to the evacuation of 370 buildings, affecting 3,000 people.

A report by the "State High Committee for the Accommodation of Disadvantaged People" (Haut Comité pour le Logement des Personnes Défavorisées) on the housing crisis in Marseille from December 2019 states:

« Malgré des alertes données de toute part depuis de nombreuses années, les acteurs publics n’ont jamais mis en œuvre une politique permettant de traiter les 40 000 logements indignes et d’assurer le droit au logement des 100 000 personnes y habitant. »

"Despite the warnings voiced by all sides for years, the political actors never pursued a policy that would have made it possible to deal with the 40,000 unsatisfactory homes and to guarantee the right to housing for the 100,000 people who live in them."

Further escalations in the peripheral areas

In 2024, clashes between drug gangs continued. Drug investigators also came under suspicion. More and more drugs are coming to France from overseas territories. The Senate raised the alarm and wants to "hit the perpetrators in their wallets".

After the drug war had already claimed more than 40 lives in 2024, Interior Minister Darmanin declared war on the drug mafia. (Bruno Retailleau became his successor in September 2024). Sensational murders in October 2024 testified to the drug dealers' merciless guerrilla warfare.

They recruit children for their business; victims and perpetrators are becoming younger and younger.

Let's summarize: Marseille, like almost every major European city, has to contend with rival gangs and groups from a wide range of areas, whether from the drug mafia or political extremism (as unfortunately just became clear in Amsterdam, when so-called football fans marched through the city shouting loudly, whereupon Palestinians felt well prepared to pursue and beat up these groups. One is as reprehensible and stupid as the other. Or is shouting Israeli slogans not to be understood as a provocation? So, what did the football fans expect? Applause? The same applies, of course, to the Palestinians and their supporters. Wanting to live in a democracy always means living non-violently! Can't you understand that? What's so difficult about it?).

The shift to the right in our democracies is increasingly understandable, even if it is transparent as a result of the creation of new elites and leaders, whose behaviour is unfortunately increasingly restricting all of our freedoms.

As a guest in a country, I have to adapt to the customs of that host country, not the other way around! This should apply to every civilized person!

Please read as well:

Citadel on the Petersberg - a highlight when visiting Erfurt

Bosnian War and Destruction of the Stari most