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These students now have a better understanding of the US
Riots broke out across French cities in the summer of 2005
What has the United States got to do with France's banlieues - its poor and mainly immigrant suburbs?
The answer is that it is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into them.
Since the 9/11 attacks and particularly since violent riots rocked France in 2005, there has been increasing US interest in the banlieues.
This has led to the instigation of a new programme to take young people and community leaders from the Muslim inner cities on all-expenses paid trips to the States.
The idea is to show the French youngsters who may have a hostile opinion of America that the US is about much more than the invasion of Iraq.
The BBC's Paris correspondent, Emma Jane Kirby, reports.
Listen Listen to her report (4 mins 41 secs)
First broadcast 4 June 2008
