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Open for business

Abdellah Aboulharjan gets young French immigrants off the streets and helps turn them into entrepreneurs.

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Brahim Branki left his native Algeria as a young man to study urban planning in Paris, where he earned a bachelor’s degree. But after working many jobs in Algeria and France, he found himself unemployed in 2005. His dream was to start his own takeout restaurant, in protest against “la mauvaise bouffe,” the bad fast food he felt was available in France. When he met with a banker, the balding, heavyset Branki was so nervous he could barely speak. His self-confidence had been eroded by his jobless status.

Today, Branki has found his voice—and founded Océane, a bright, simply furnished restaurant in the centre of one of France’s most troubled cities: Mantes-la-Jolie, west of Paris. “It was a militant idea, a statement against unhealthy meals,” Branki says. The restaurant has been open for a year and is an obvious success. Branki beams as his German wife watches from behind the register, smiling.

Sitting at a table in Océane is the man partly responsible for Branki’s restaurant: Abdellah Aboulharjan, whom Branki met through an entrepreneurial friend. Aboulharjan, together with Aziz Senni, another immigrant businessperson, set up ­Jeunes Entrepreneurs (“young entrepreneurs”) in 2002 to give young immigrant entrepreneurs a helping hand. “As you can see,” he says, referring to Branki and his bustling restaurant, “working is good for your self-confidence. It gives you respect. Creating your own company is a good way to help shape your life.”

Branki agrees. “Now I’m suddenly treated with respect,” he says. “People in the neighbourhood stop and chat with me.”

Back in the autumn of 2005, the locals in Mantes-la-Jolie were making a different kind of news when two youths died while fleeing the police, and riots broke out in the French banlieue, the grim suburbs surrounding France’s big cities. Some 4.7 million people live here in grey concrete houses. Fifty-six percent are on unemployment benefits. Only one in four people between the ages of 17 and 24 has a high school diploma; one in three is unemployed. Blinded by frustration with the hopelessness of their situation, young immigrants torched thousands of parked cars.

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